For many, the situation at the nation’s southern border is something abstract and distant. What we get from various news sources is that an overwhelming amount of people are seeking asylum in the U.S. because they say their original homes are unsafe.
Likewise many in our nation, including those in power, doubt the refugees’ motives are genuine and say the U.S. has no room for them. Various means have been used to deter them.
Wendy Goodman, a Greenfield resident, decided to go to the border to see for herself. Better yet, she wanted to volunteer her help.
Goodman says her trip to Tijuana was motivated by conversations she had during the holidays about what’s happening at the Mexico border and how people there are being treated.
Her response was, “How can I be this angry about it and not do anything?”
So, Goodman went to see what she could do. After all, she had spent more than seven years volunteering in Haiti including with the Peace Corps.
In Tijuana, she planned to work with the group Al Otro Lado — “The Other Side.” In preparation, she refreshed her Spanish language skills.
But what was surprising to Goodman when she arrived in March was the number of Haitian refugees seeking asylum. (Other asylum seekers came from Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America among other places.)
For the three weeks she volunteered, Goodman used her Creole language skills to help Haitian refugees navigate the legal process, including identifying the facts they needed to make a case to U.S. officials that they faced persecution “back home.”
Then there was the frustrating process of how and if asylum seekers would be allowed to cross the border. To be fair, it must be a staggering amount of work for immigration officials to handle.
But what struck Goodman was that the people who sought asylum weren’t angry. “They’re so determined, so open-hearted, so courageous, so creative, and to describe them as criminals was just infuriating,” she says.
Certainly, Goodman’s volunteer work in Tijuana is commendable. But she took it further when she returned to Greenfield — inviting into her home a young Haitian family she had met, Junior Dubreus, Merna Phillipe and their infant daughter.
The couple was admitted legally to the U.S. after a long and harrowing trek, sometimes on foot, through South and Central America. But despite their success, the couple found they would be unable to live with a relative in Boston.
That’s when Goodman once again took action. She has made her home their home. Area people, she notes, have likewise been generous.
“It’s incredibly heartwarming,” she says. “This community is amazing.”
This is a remarkable story. And, we would like to commend Goodman for her humanitarian efforts, both in Tijuana and in her hometown.
She’s even created a way for people to assist Phillipe, Dubreus and their daughter by setting up an account for the Debreus Family at Greenfield Savings Bank. Checks can be made payable to Goodman, but the money will benefit the family.
Certainly, not everyone can volunteer to assist those who see a hopeful future in the U.S. Here’s a way to help one family who decided to take that chance.