Migrant center leader hopes Trump doesn't bring back 'remain in Mexico'

A Catholic nun who has helped tens of thousands of migrants seek refuge in the U.S. says she hopes President-elect Trump doesn’t reinstate some of the same hard-line immigration policies which were a cornerstone of his first term. 

Sister Norma Pimentel – who runs the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley migrant shelter in Eagle Pass, Texas, and has been praised by the Pope for her humanitarian work – says she wants to work with the incoming administration to help needy migrants get their asylum applications processed so they can work towards a better and more prosperous life, according to Border Report. 

She tells the outlet that she hopes the Trump-Vance administration – elected last week on a platform of clamping down hard on illegal immigration and carrying out America’s largest ever deportation operation – will not force asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for months or even years for their immigration cases to be heard. 

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Sister Norma Pimentel runs the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley migrant shelter in Eagle Pass, Texas, and has been praised by the Pope for her humanitarian work. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)

Trump has repeatedly lauded his Migrant Protection Protocols, more commonly referred to as "Remain in Mexico," for being fundamental in drastically reducing the number of migrants crossing the southern border. Trump is expected to bring the policy back, although it may take some time to launch and will require coordination with the Mexican government.

Pimentel says that allowing the migrants to cross and then be catered for by organizations like hers is safer for the migrants and allows them to access necessities like food and shelter.

"When we went through that in the past, we experienced and we saw a lot of people hurting, suffering tremendously. You know, my hopes are that it doesn’t happen again because it puts people in danger, people that already have an application put in for asylum and they have a right to be in the United States while it processes," Pimentel told Border Report at her offices at the Basilica of San Juan. 

"Why would they have to wait in Mexico? But whatever they’re given, we would work with them to try to help them in that process, to get that asylum process going."

At its peak, the former nightclub-turned shelter would process up to 1,500 people per day, but it has now fallen to about 50, per Border Report.

Pimentel says the Biden administration has largely put a stop to migrants illegally crossing in between ports of entry and if they do sneak across "they get sent back."

Migrants walk along the highway through Suchiate, Chiapas state in southern Mexico, on Sunday, July 21, 2024, during their journey north toward the U.S. border. ( AP Photo/Edgar H. Clemente)

Of the 2.9 million nationwide encounters in fiscal year 2024, nearly half were at ports of entry, while only 15 percent of nationwide encounters were at ports of entry in fiscal year 2021, according to Homeland Security’s (DHS) website. Illegal border crossings surged under the Biden administration and there have been more than 10.8 million illegal encounters since FY 2021.

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Pimentel says that federal funding for non-profits which process migrants could be on the chopping block under the Trump-Vance administration.

FEMA has been administering hundreds of millions of dollars in grants for non-profits and local communities receiving illegal immigrants during the historic border crisis. The funding this year consists of $650 million, using funding moved over from Customs and Border Protection.

The scheme became a lightning rod for conservatives in the wake of hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, when DHS requested extra funding from Congress.

She says that God will provide and believes the Rio Grande Valley community will come out to support asylum-seekers.

Sister Norma Pimentel helping migrants off a bus at Brownsville in 2021. (John Moore/Getty Images)

"[The funding] was a blessing. It was good, it was something that helped," Pimentel told Border Report. "Before that, it was 100% from the community, from all over the United States, supporting efforts like what we do. I think it challenges us to continue to respond and be part of helping humanity be OK."

Her humanitarianism, while praised by some, has been criticized by others including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who has accused Catholic non-governmental organizations of encouraging illegal immigration and operating stash houses for those entering illegally.

Paxton tried to depose Pimentel — as well as the leaders of four other centers that help migrants in Texas — but a judge in Hidalgo County this summer ruled that he does not have the authority to order Pimentel deposed, per Border Report. 

The outlet reports that Pimentel has a close working relationship with DHS and regularly gets called by Border Patrol when they are bringing migrants to her center or have a large group that needs respite care. She said she will work with whoever is necessary to make sure that those who come to the U.S. are treated humanely and with dignity.

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Central American migrant families released from a federal detention are seen inside the humanitarian respite center run by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in McAllen, Texas, on July 29, 2019.  (Loren Elliott/Reuters)

"I will be here to respond and to work with whoever is our leaders that want to be able to create something good for people who are in our country and needing our help," she said.

One of those leaders could be Thomas Homan, who President-elect Trump appointed as his "border czar."

Homan told "The Story" this week that there will be "no catch and release" under the new administration. 

"There is no fraudulent asylum claims, you’re either going to remain in Mexico or you’re going to be in detention. You won’t come across the border and be released, flown into the city of your choice by the NGO’s at taxpayers' expense.