(OSV News) — When OSV News called her Jan. 21, Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Rose Patrice Kuhn had already crossed the border from McAllen, Texas, into Reynosa, Mexico — walking, as she does most days, across the pedestrian bridge that connects the two cities in order to serve migrants at several shelters in Reynosa.
The ministry, which she undertakes with women religious from several congregations, can be excruciating. On several occasions, Sister Rose — who works with Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley and with ministries in Reynosa — has shared with OSV News that many of those arriving at the border have experienced physical and sexual violence, as well as kidnapping for ransom, on their long and bitter trek.
But the anguish was especially acute the day after President Donald Trump was sworn into office for a second term as U.S. president, said Sister Rose.
Hours after the inauguration, Trump issued several executive orders, one of which declared migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border an emergency.
CBP One App Appointments Canceled
That same day, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that key functionalities of its CBP One app for smartphones were “no longer available.” The CBP One app, rolled out under the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security, was being used by asylum-seekers to secure an appointment with CBP at the southern border.
“Existing appointments have been cancelled,” effective Jan. 20, said CBP on its website.
On Jan. 21, Sister Rose joined pastor José Miguel Cristóbal Juárez of Senda de Vida II, a migrant shelter in Reynosa built as a second location for the Senda de Vida ministry established in 2000 by Christian pastor Hector Silva and his wife, Marilu Lira.
News of the Trump executive orders and the cancellation of thousands of CBP appointments devastated those waiting at the border, said Sister Rose and Cristóbal.
“Everyone is crying at Senda de Vida Dos,” Cristóbal, speaking in Spanish, told OSV News. “People are very sad because of the cancellation of their CBP One appointments.”
“We’re going to go there to cry with them, connect with them,” said Sister Rose.
Weighing Options
Cristóbal told OSV News that migrants with whom he has spoken are weighing a number of options, although “some don’t know what they’re going to do.
“Some are thinking about going back to their own countries,” he said. “And some are thinking about trying to cross the river (Rio Grande)” into Texas.
A few hours after her Jan. 21 visit with Cristóbal at Senda de Vida II and Casa del Migrante, another nearby shelter, Sister Rose provided an update to OSV News through voicemail on conversations the two had with migrants that day.
“A gentleman from Honduras said, ‘If I go back to Honduras, they will kill me,'” said Sister Rose.
One 13-year-old girl, she said, described Trump’s decision to cancel CBP One appointments as “mal,” Spanish for “bad,” adding that — as Sister Rose relayed to OSV News — she “thought they would have allowed people who had received the appointment … to complete that, even if they discontinued it with everybody else.”
“She said she thought it would have been just,” Sister Rose said.
Navigating Deadly Darién Gap
A woman from Venezuela told Sister Rose and Cristóbal that they had sold everything to reach the U.S.-Mexico border, navigating the deadly Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama — where at least 258 migrants died between 2018-2023 — and riding “la Bestia,” the name given to the freight trains atop which migrants cling to transit through Mexico.
“They’ve been in Mexico for months, and they were going to have their appointment with CBP One,” Sister Rose said in her voicemail, adding that her pastoral visit with Cristóbal was “a very disheartening day.”
In both shelters, “people were just down,” she said. “After months and months of waiting, they just don’t know what they’re going to do.”
At the same time, migrants “expressed faith, hope,” she said.
And amid the migrants’ suffering, both Sister Rose and Cristóbal remain committed to their missions — and confident in their faith.
“We have great hope because we pray to the Lord,” said Cristóbal. “We know things will work out well.”
Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.
Updated Jan. 22, 2025, at 3:06 p.m. EST
