Minister Opens Her Doors To Asylum Seekers Stranded At Border

(Bernice Corpuz/WBZ NewsRadio 1030)

HARVARD (WBZ-AM) -- Reverend Jill Cowie with the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church is waiting to hear when a 23-year-old mother and her six-year-old daughter from El Salvador will be coming to Massachusetts.

They're currently stranded at the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego. They've been on the road for the last few months, hoping to seek a better life in the United States, but were denied access along with other asylum seekers.

"She was facing gang violence," Cowie told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bernice Corpuz. "The gang was trying to use her and her sister to set up crimes, and she didn't want any part of it--assasinations, actually. And so she fled with her daughter immediately."

Through the church's "Love Resists" campaign, the reverend volunteered to become a sponsor. She was matched with the mother and daughter, and offered a room in her Roslindale home for as long as it takes for the family to get asylum.

"As a person of faith, I promised, I pledged, to welcome our neighbors," she said. "Now's not the time to build a wall. People who are fleeing from violence do not feel like a threat. They basically just need sanctuary. They need a safe haven. You just have to look at it with honest eyes and open hearts."

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bernice Corpuz reports


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