About a year ago, in the midst of working on my Stonecatcher Project research, I interviewed Tori Salas, the Coordinating Director of the Interfaith Welcome Coalition (IWC). She had worked with IWC for several years and was the first paid staff they hired, and she joined because she had always had an interest in working with migrants. The IWC was one of the organizations with a goal and efforts to assist immigrants and refugees that I had previously researched for my project, so I was interested in learning more about the work they do and the services they provide from someone who had experience working with such an organization.
IWC assists asylum-seeking refugees and at-risk immigrants by providing hospitality and humanitarian services. Some of their services include transporting migrants to and from airports and hotels, providing them with meals, carrying out pop-up services, and delivering resources to bus stations. A large part of their efforts also goes into partnering with different organizations who assist asylum seekers. For example, they refer immigrants to organizations such as the Center for Refugee Services (that have pop-up clinics and other programs) for more resources than the ones IWC provides.
This past year, IWC has seen most immigrants come from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala. Two years ago, a large number of people emigrated from Haiti. The reasons for their immigration into the U.S. mainly depend on the situation of their respective countries’ governments and regimes, with migrants often fleeing due to political reasons and consequently seeking asylum.
The Interfaith Welcome Coalition was established in 2014, a time when no-one was assisting asylum seekers in San Antonio, and the needs of migrants traveling through San Antonio were not being met. Women and children, for example, would be arriving at the bus stops with no food or water. Some of the biggest challenges the organization has faced have to do with trying to provide services to asylum seekers without assistance from other organizations, especially in 2021. In that year, they assisted 90,000 asylum seekers and provided services in city parks, since they lacked support from other organizations that only work with government funding. IWC is one of the only organizations that assist asylum-seeking refugees and immigrants year round, with or without government funding, and they provide navigation and direction to such seekers to help them complete their journeys, as many are traveling through San Antonio and other Texas cities.
IWC was 100% volunteer driven at its establishment, and currently, it is 96% volunteer driven. They have a hospitality collaborative coordinator, which is needed in immigrant services because there is a lack of people assisting migrants with family members in the hospital. They have a hospitality clinic, for which they partner with Catholic Charities, UT Health, and hospital employees in San Antonio to work on providing clothing, food, and transportation to and from hospitals. IWC also collects data from migrants to get a better idea of the demographics of people passing through Texas. They have part-time staff at bus stations, and they are constantly trying to increase the number of host families to assist migrants. One story Ms. Salas remembers is that of a female migrant crossing the river during her journey and breaking her leg in the process. When IWC reached her, they moved her to the hospital and later found a host family for her.
Some of the biggest struggles that immigrants still face include being able to get legal appointments, since nearly every legal service across the country is over capacity, and immigrants have a hard time finding low-cost services that can be provided to them. Another issue is that of Operation Lone Star, launched in 2021 by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and the SB-4 law, which have negative impacts for immigrants crossing the México-Texas border. The law forces immigrants to show documentation papers and targets any person suspected of crossing the border illegally (at which point they are at risk of being automatically deported by state officials, even if they have papers). Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is even trying to close shelters that temporarily house migrants. This operation and law pose a threat to the efforts of the IWC, as it is applied in critical areas they are concerned about. IWC has been actively using their platform to spread awareness about the effects of such laws on migrants entering Texas and have advocated for challenges against the law. In the meantime, their efforts have not been deterred, as they continue to welcome and support as many people seeking their services as they can.
For those who want to volunteer with the Interfaith Welcome Coalition, they can explore a multitude of opportunities to get involved (e.g. joining backpack committees, assisting in delivering food from the Food Bank to bus stations and other IWC stations). Volunteers usually are asked to have a commitment of three or more months (with some exceptions), and volunteers are always needed. For more information, the link to their volunteer opportunities is linked below.
