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Go directly to  Team Brownsville, Humanitarian Assistance for Asylum Seekers

Dear Friends,

I hope the Yamim Noraim were meaningful for you this year and that 5780 is a year of love, health, holiness, prosperity and peace for you and everyone you love. In a few short days we will be observing Sukkot celebrating a harvest festival and remembering the time we spent in the wilderness as refugees following the exodus from Egypt. This year we are celebrating this festival in many exciting and new ways. You can see the schedule at the bottom of this letter.

During Chol HaMoed Sukkot (the intermediate days of Sukkot) I will be traveling with a faith leader delegation lead by PASO to Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico. The delegation will meet with local attorneys and the Texas Civil Rights Project. In collaboration with local partners and PASO we will travel to Matamoros to meet with migrants, bear witness to their stories, and provide some basic support. On the second day, the delegation will again travel to Matamoros in the morning, provide some basic support and return to Brownsville to raise awareness about the conditions and inhumanity of the MPP program, as well as the needs of the migrants.

The MPP,  “Migrant Protection Protocol” program forces migrants seeking asylum to stay in Mexico awaiting their court hearings on their asylum applications. Migrants are told Mexican government authorities will provide them shelter and ensure their basic needs are met; however, the reality is completely different. Migrants are being returned to extremely dangerous cities in Mexico where they are then targeted and made vulnerable by organized crime and Mexican government officials. Families have no place to live and are living in small tents or under blankets on the dirt. They have no clean water, no shelter, and no place to go. More than 40,000 people have been returned to Mexico since the program was instituted in December 2018. Only one single person in this program has been granted asylum.

The area we are traveling to, the area where many refugees are being sent, is on the northern outskirts Matamoras in the state of Tamalpais. This area is considered one of the most dangerous places on the planet by the US State Department—ranked as dangerous as Syria. The refugees who are there lack many basic needs, including shelter. Our delegation will be purchasing sleeping mats and tents in Texas and bringing them with us across the border. If you would like to make a small donation to help with the purchase of tents and supplies for the refugees and migrants you can donate below. All donations in excess of what is spent on supplies will be donated to a refugee and migrant legal aid clinic in Brownsville, Texas that provides legal service to the families who are in the MPP program.

Thank you for your consideration,
Rabbi Max Weiss