TUCSON, Ariz. - Asylum seekers started moving into the Benedictine Monastery on Saturday Jan 26.
Today on #GoodMorningTucson - we’re talking about the asylum seekers who’ve moved into the #Benedictine Monastery and what life is like for them now. We’re live at 5:30 on @kgun9 pic.twitter.com/GawaKsOvo0
— Veronica Acosta (@VeronicacostaTV) January 31, 2019
Volunteers working inside of the monastery said they got a call from ICE Saturday morning letting them know they had more than 60 people they had to drop off.
That day they began scrambling to make sure they had adequate room for the migrants and could house all of them.
Diego Javier Pina Lopez is the lead coordinator with Casa Alitas, which is the organization caring for those sheltering in the monastery. He said intially they thought the monastery could hold roughly 40 people, but after re-organizing they realized they could bring in more than 100 migrants.
Although they are able to shelter migrants in the monastery now, Lopez said they still have some kinks to work out.
"We're sending families right now to other shelters in the community as we're still trying to get situated and getting he processes down pat. Doing it in four days there's some things we can fix, but that's been amazing to see the participants and their patience really on helping us out," Lopez said.
