The Jesuit Border Podcast

This week we are grateful to be joined by Hermi Forshage who is the volunteer coordinator at the Humanitarian Respite Center (HRC) in McAllen, TX and the chairperson for the Catholic Charities RGV advisory board. Hermi has been instrumental in helping us to get involved at the HRC and has been a huge supporter of our work in Reynosa. In this episode, Hermi shares stories from her years of experien...

This week we are very pleased to release our interview with Trey Martinez, an attorney from Brownsville and a very good friend of ours. In this episode, Trey tells the story about how, through the influence of Sr. Norma Pimentel, he chose to use his legal expertise to help migrants with their asylum cases and co-found Project Dignity Legal Team. Trey also speaks openly about the topic of immigrati...

We are thrilled to welcome Fr. Joel Flores, the pastor of San Pedro Catholic Church in the Diocese of Brownsville, TX. Fr. Joel shares some of the innovative ways his parish has responded to the needs of the community throughout the pandemic, including transforming a trailer into a mobile chapel. He also reflects on his ministry of burying indigent or unclaimed bodies in the parish cemetery. We ta...

We are excited to welcome Brendon Tucker from Global Response Management, an organization that delivers emergency medical care in crisis situations around the world, including in northern Mexico along the border. In his interview, Tucker talks about how he got so involved in a medical organization without a medical background, and the drastic medical needs in Reynosa right now. We share about our...

We are delighted to welcome Vero Dimas from the Brownsville Wellness Coalition, an organization that offers programs that promote nutrition and healthy lifestyles. Brownsville has high rates of obesity and diabetes, and it’s one of the nation’s poorest cities by per capita income. The Brownsville Wellness Coalition addresses these issues by running a local farmer’s market, encouraging local produc...

We are excited to welcome Chloe Rastatter and Christa Cook from Solidarity Engineering for our first episode of Season 2. Chloe and Christa are two of the three engineers who founded Solidarity Engineering, an organization working on the border to provide engineering solutions to water and sanitation problems, among other things. In this episode, they talk about the complexities of something as ba...

Louie Hotop, SJ, and Brian Strassburger, SJ, are two Jesuit priests working on the US-Mexico border in the diocese of Brownsville, TX. This podcast explores the humanitarian response along the U.S.-Mexico border from a Catholic perspective. Season 2 will focus on the Corporal Works of Mercy, and include interviews with organizations who are putting them into practice in very challenging conditions...

It was our great pleasure to welcome Sr. Norma Pimentel, MJ, the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley for the last episode of Season 1. Sr. Norma works tirelessly on behalf of the most vulnerable on the US-Mexico border, and she is a well-known advocate for migrants and asylum seekers. If you enjoyed hearing from her in Episode 6, here is the full interview. Sr. Norma...

We were honored to have Bishop Daniel Flores for our first interview. As the bishop of Brownsville, TX, Bishop Flores is deeply invested in and knowledgeable of the border reality. If you enjoyed hearing from him in Episode 1, here is the full interview. Bishop Flores shares his reflections on the dignity of the human person, especially from the perspective of the poorest among us. The full interv...

For our final episode of the first season of The Jesuit Border Podcast , it is our pleasure to welcome Sr. Norma Pimentel, MJ, the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. Sr. Norma works tirelessly on behalf of the most vulnerable on the US-Mexico border, and she is a well-known advocate for migrants and asylum seekers. She was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influ...

This week on The Jesuit Border Podcast , it is our pleasure to welcome Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, the co-founder of The Sidewalk School, a school for migrant children in the Reynosa encampment, along with other sites in northern Mexico. Felicia is a strong advocate for asylum-seekers, and she is particularly focused on amplifying their voices and creating opportunities to exhibit their talents. In...

We are delighted to welcome Ofelia de los Santos who works for the Diocese of Brownsville, TX. Ofelia is the Director of Jail Ministry, the Director of Stewardship, and the liaison for Catholic Relief Services. In a word, she wears many hats! In this episode Ofelia shares from her experiences of accompanying detained men and women as a lawyer and as a chaplain. We also share about our ministry wit...

We are excited to welcome Sr. Liz Sjoberg, the Director of Family and Education Services at Proyecto Juan Diego, a non-profit which assists low-income and undocumented families in the Rio Grande Valley. In this episode, Sr. Liz speaks about her own experience of working in the Valley with migrants and undocumented people. She explores the joys and difficulties of this ministry, and reflects deeply...

We are excited to welcome our good friend and frequent advisor, Nancy Dimas, for our second episode. Nancy is the Executive Administrator of Project Dignity Legal Team, a ministry of Catholic Charities RGV. In this episode, she reflects on the rights that asylum seekers have as they navigate the immigration process. We also share stories of some unexpected places where we’ve run into asylum seeker...

We are honored to have Bishop Daniel Flores for our first interview. As the bishop of Brownsville, TX, Bishop Flores is deeply invested in and knowledgeable of the border reality. In this episode, he shares his own reflections on the dignity of the human person, especially from the perspective of the poorest among us. We also share about our own work with the migrants in Reynosa, Mexico, and some...

Louie Hotop, SJ, and Brian Strassburger, SJ, are two newly ordained Jesuit priests working on the US-Mexico border in the diocese of Brownsville, TX. This podcast will highlight some of the work that the Catholic Church and others are doing to address the needs on the border, as well as explore immigration topics from the perspective of Catholic Social Teaching.  The first episode will be ava...