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Founded by Catholic followers of the Italian priest Juan Bautista Scalabrini, the Casa del Migrante seeks to give migrants a place to feel human before they continue their journey, if only for a few days.

“The migrant,” says Father Francisco Pellizari, who is the director of the safe house, “is Mr. Nobody for society. He is completely anonymous.”

Inside the courtyard in the late afternoon, migrant men wash clothes, watch soccer, talk and smoke cigarettes. Pellizari says the safe house is designed to restore a feeling of dignity to the men - and very few women - who stay here.

“That informs everything about what we do here,” he says, “how we treat the migrants, what we serve for dinner, and how long we can offer them a bed. We’d rather offer them a bed for a shorter time, but in better conditions.”

Most of the over ten thousand migrants who stayed at Casa del Migrante last year are from Central America, particularly Honduras, says Pellizari. To arrive there, they hop trains north through Mexico, in what many described as a harrowing ride.

“In the course of our trip,” says Samuel Mendes, a 34-year old Guatemalan, “we get robbed, we don’t have enough to eat.” For Mendes, the Casa del Migrante is the last stop before possibly crossing the Rio Grande into the United States. He says he crossed once before and received two months jail time for illegal entry under a policy known as “Zero Tolerance,” intended to deter illegal immigration.

Mendes says he is conflicted about whether its better for his family to make another attempt to join his brother-in-law in Houston, or to go back to them in Guatemala.

Posted: April 5, 2008