Community leaders meet to coordinate support for asylum seekers in Northeast Ohio

asylum seekers

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Pastor Felix Muñiz and Nueva Luz Church are one of many struggling to properly meet the needs of asylum seekers coming to the city.

“I’ve had individuals call and ask me if they can rent my garage,” Pastor Muñiz said. “Could you imagine something like that?”

In response to the arrival of migrants, community leaders met Wednesday on Fulton Road for a meeting titled Immigration Response. Its attendees looked to find a better way to communicate and coordinate help for those who arrive with few resources.

“It’s not a crisis of our inability to absorb people,” said Christy Staats with the National Immigration Forum, who helped put the meeting together. “It’s a crisis of pipeline and lack of communication. If a bus arrives or a small car arrives of people with no notice and they don’t know where they’re going, and nobody has alerted anyone that they’re arriving, that’s the crisis point.”

Pastor Muñiz has seen this haphazard drop-offs of migrants first-hand: “Sometimes they come and drop them off in local businesses. If there’s a Hispanic restaurant there, they’ll say ‘I’m going to leave you here. Go into that Spanish restaurant, they will help you. And that’s it.”

Of the families that have been dropped off in Cleveland, Pastor and leader of the Galilean Theological Center says he’s helped 26 of them. He has provided basic necessities like food and shelter, which can mean everything to those who arrive in Cuyahoga County with next to nothing.

“We had another family whose child was paralyzed, and we were able to get some help,” Pastor Muñiz said. “So that’s what we’ve been dealing with day in and day out.”

This week’s meeting did bring leaders together, but there’s still a lot they look to find out, such as how many migrants are making it to Northeast Ohio, or who do they call once they arrive.

“I’ve already heard of a dozen new meetings happening even in the next week,” Staats said.

In the meantime, both Staats and Muñiz are encouraging neighbors to help in any way they can.

“We need to be aware that these are human beings,” Muñiz said. “I think it will get better but it’s going to take a lot of effort.”

Part 2 of the Immigration Response meeting will take place on March 20th at noon at 3389 Fulton Road. You must RSVP for this event.