Dec 07, 2022

Asylum-seeking migrants arrive in Neb. from southern border

Posted Dec 07, 2022 3:45 PM
Charter bus with asylum-seeking migrants from seven different countries arrives at its Omaha destination Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022, where a volunteer team will temporarily host them on their journey. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)
Charter bus with asylum-seeking migrants from seven different countries arrives at its Omaha destination Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022, where a volunteer team will temporarily host them on their journey. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

Local group expects to offer refuge to more migrants

By CINDY GONZALEZ
Nebraska Examiner

OMAHA — A charter bus carrying 39 asylum seekers from seven countries arrived Tuesday in Omaha, where local volunteers temporarily will host the group that was part of an overflow at the U.S. border.

The Omaha team had been preparing for weeks for the men, women and children sent by a faith-based shelter in the border city of El Paso, Texas. 

Humanitarian groups in that area have been overwhelmed by the influx of border-crossers seeking asylum in the U.S. and have reached out to advocates in other states to provide refuge.

“They’re safe — they’ll be well cared for and well fed,” Tom Hoarty, a retired lawyer heading the private Omaha effort, said after the migrants got off the red American charter bus.

Tom Hoarty of Omaha Welcome the Stranger, which is providing temporary refuge to migrant border crossers seeking asylum in the U.S. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)
Tom Hoarty of Omaha Welcome the Stranger, which is providing temporary refuge to migrant border crossers seeking asylum in the U.S. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

Donations of food, clothes, diapers

The guests are to remain together as a group during their Omaha stay at a site the team prefers not to identify. Local people donated funds, food, clothing, diapers and personal items.

Hoarty expects the stays to be short-term, as the time in Omaha is to be spent connecting with sponsors across the country where the guests will stay pending immigration court hearings in those destinations. Already before the end of the first day, three families left Omaha to be united with their sponsors.

Each of the migrants, upon crossing the Mexico border into the U.S., was vetted, processed and released by federal immigration officials into the El Paso community. Such “provisional” releases are a ”humane” alternative to overcrowding in Customs and Border Protection facilities, a CBP official said.

Released foreigners have been found to pose no safety risk and also agreed to report to their scheduled court hearing, which determines whether they’ll be able to remain legally in the country with asylum status.

‘Omaha Welcome the Stranger’

In Omaha, Hoarty said the effort, dubbed Omaha Welcomes the Stranger, is organized and financed by private sources and has had no input from local government, other than Hoarty talking informally to his City Council member.

Hoarty said the Omaha group stepped up after hearing a call for help from the El Paso-based Annunciation House.

Hoarty and a few other local volunteers were familiar with the shelter because they have done mission work on the southern border.

Cities such as Denver and Kansas City also have provided refuge to busloads of migrants, working in conjunction with the Annunciation House.

Not all cities have been as welcoming. New York City’s mayor earlier had declared a state of emergency over the continued flow of migrants from the El Paso area that was stressing facilities in that city.

Positive Omaha response

Separately, and in protest of the Biden administration’s border policies, Republican officials in Texas and Arizona have sent border crossers to certain cities.

Hoarty said his team has received only positive response and support from the Omaha community to what they consider a humanitarian outreach.

About 20 volunteers, some of whom speak Spanish, greeted and helped in settling the visitors Tuesday. Roughly 40 others across the metro have helped in other ways, Hoarty said. 

He said airport officials have been helpful in ensuring easy transition for the asylum seekers from Omaha to other destination cities.

Tuesday’s arrivals are expected to be the first of more busloads of migrants to Omaha.

“We’d like to do it again,” Hoarty said.