The 2-day, 3-city, 4-event campaign by Project Lifeline to bring visibility to the number of migrant children in crisis was a resounding success. With the release of DHS regulations threatening to eliminate Flores protections of children in immigration detention on September 7, 40-year immigration and human rights attorney and Project Lifeline Co-Founder and Executive Director Hope Frye was interviewed by NBC and placed an opinion editorial in CNN Español ahead of the weekend’s events.

We coordinated sister dialogues in San Antonio and Houston on Friday, September 28, 7-9p at the University of the Incarnate Word and Willow Meadows Baptist Church. These dialogues were followed the next day by relief caravans traveling from both cities and converging in McAllen for a national public witness event.

In San Antonio, The Ettling Center for the Civic Leadership co-sponsored the event with the 168 participants gathered in their main ballroom. Participants were treated to a pre-event multi-media show. Moderated by the Rev Ann Helmke, Community Faith Based Liaison for the City of San Antonio, 4 pediatric specialists including Drs. Paul Wise and Ayseha Khan, Stanford University Medical School; Dr. Fernando Stein,Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine; and Dr. Marsha Griffin, University of Texas Rio Grande Medical School; and 3 faith leaders engaged in an interactive and moving conversation.

Sister Norma Pimentel of Catholic Charities Rio Grande Valley, a luminary with numerous national awards for her work, told a heartbreaking story of a group of children in detention hanging onto her crying. She asked us to examine the barriers that are holding us back from volunteering, helping and welcoming.

The Rev Dr Helen Boursier who ran a pastoral care ministry of presence inside the Karnes Detention Center for two years spoke passionately about that work, the women and children whose stories she heard and the art they created. The Power of Hope, an exhibition of that art, was on display.

Dr. Stein, whose father ran from the Nazis to Guatemala, shared moving memories of his childhood explaining that children do not migrate. They flee.

The overall theme emerging from the conversation was a call to collective and individual action – to own the problems that as a democratic society we have created. Dr. Wise exhorted us to remember that we get the government we deserve and that we will continue to inflict traumas until we change our views and actions.

This passionate discussion stimulated lively interactions within small groups during a breakout. The audience came back together for penetrating questioning of the panel and the sharing of new ideas that will serve as the foundation for collaborations moving forward.

In Houston, we brought 3 physicians and 3 faith leaders together, including Dr. Ranit Mishori, a representative from our partner organization, Physicians for Human Rights, Dr. Padma Swamy, immigrant and migrant health leadership for Doctors for Change, and Dr. Seema Jilani, a decorated physician journalist expert in migrant health. Reflecting the diversity of this city, African-American Reverend Ronnie Lister, Latino Imam Daniel Hernandez, and Feminist Baptist Minister Laura Mayo provided profound and moving insights on the current crisis from the lens of their faith traditions. Audio podcasts of their wisdom will be available shortly on our website.

Doctors for Change ensured that audience members in health services were guided to local work underway to address the needs of undocumented children and families. Attorneys connected with physicians for an emerging medico-legal effort with the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative. And the 100 members of the Houston community who joined us on a Friday night left stirred to action.

On Saturday, September 29, caravans of charter buses and cars left from San Antonio and Houston, traveling 4-6 hours to the border city of McAllen, Texas. We met near the 1,000 person capacity Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detention facility know as Ursula (for the street on which it sits) or the dog pound for the conditions inside. Many children were separated from their parents here. Metal cages house detainees in unsanitary conditions without secure access to food, water, warmth, and basic medical care.

Project Lifeline was joined by 150 university students, physicians, faith leaders, local organizations and many other people of good conscience from across the country to deliver nearly $10,000 worth of relief supplies.

We were united powerfully in song lead by professional singer Reed Hoke as we approached the facility to make our offering of goods and medical and spiritual services. Within seconds, a CBP officer declined the offer from Mennonite Pastor John Garland of San Antonio and instructed him not to disrupt the barricade to the facility.

Although we knew that the supplies and services would be rejected, the group was stunned by the speed with which the officer dismissed the offer to provide them.

Quickly, physician and Co-Founder of Project Lifeline, Dr. Dona Kim Murphey, moved the barricade and walked to the entrance to summon the officer. After being disrespectfully escorted behind the barrier and issued a stern threat of prosecution for further disruption, Dr. Murphey expressed our collective concern that children inside are suffering and insisted ultimately that as tax payers we have a right to understand the failings of what we subsidize.

The officer refused to respond to the direct questions repeating instead that CBP does not take donations and that further questions should be directed to Public Affairs.

Rev. Lister of Houston attempted to soften the tone with compassionate words of unity. Unmoved, the officer issued a final refusal and turned his back. As he did this, the wind carried voices that spontaneously erupted into the hopeful song ‘Un dia a la vez’ (One Day At a Time).

We then adjourned to the main chapel at the San Juan Basilica for our program. University of the Incarnate Word students Merina Cazares and Rolan Tate joined Reed Hoke in singing Amazing Grace and Universal Child.

We were greeted by Rector Fr. Jorge Gómez, who saluted our efforts and shared their longstanding and ongoing work in this space. Hope Frye and our physicians and faith leaders helped us to debrief, defining for everyone the scope of the problem and the moral imperative to act.

In her stirring remarks closing the program Dr. Dona Murphey asked us: “What if someone empowered you to walk that mental passage in the shoes of the most vulnerable? Would circumstances be different then? There is only one way to know. That is to do the experiment.”

The livestream coverage by DC-based The Talk on Main Street has been viewed 96,000 times.