The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says more than 10,000 migrant children from the U.S. border with Mexico have arrived at shelters across the country, including 1,500 at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is paying $8 million to lease the convention center for 75 days. Up to 3,000 teenagers could be housed there.
Catholic Charities is coordinating volunteer efforts at the center. Among non-profits working there is Gateway of Grace Ministry.
"It's a tough journey," says Gateway of Grace founder Samira Page. "Human trafficking, gangs, drug smugglers, there are all sorts of terrors along the way."
Page is a refugee from Iran. She fled to the U.S. 25 years ago with her husband and two kids by crossing the Rio Grande.
She says her family worked with two people to help them cross the border. She says her husband was carrying one of their kids; one of the others was carrying her other son.
"They had done that before. The guy just took off with our son," Page says. "I was in the middle of the river. I couldn't swim; I didn't know how to swim. I was getting dizzy. The water was up to my chin, and at that moment, my only fear was separation from our child and not drowning."
She was reunited with her kids, and because of her experience, she says she cannot imagine a parent having to choose to send a child thousands of miles away for a better life.
"That's the scariest thought a parent can ever have, how desperate a parent must be to be willing to do this," Page says.
Page says Gateway of Grace will work with Catholic Charities to provide supplies for the teenagers and also provide activities.
"They'll remove some of the fear and communicate this is not about politics. This is about these children," she says. "We are just taking it one day at a time, praying and working."
More information about Gateway of Grace Ministry can be found at gatewayofgrace.org.