SAN ANTONIO — As President-elect Donald Trump is vowing to make history with the largest deportation program to date, San Antonio just opened the doors to a center that welcomes newcomers.
It's called the Mother Teresa Center.
The organization's President & CEO, J. Antonio Fernandez, showed us around.
The two-story building off Summit Parkway near Callaghan Road on the northwest side was once home to UPS. The brown walls were painted an off-white color, adding brightness to a space serving as a light at the end of a long tunnel. Cubicles that fill the former UPS call center on the second floor are now filled with Catholic Charities case managers. It was a buzzing Friday afternoon.
At the end of a first floor hallway is a classroom. We listened in as the teacher spoke Spanish to a room full of people. Fernandez said it was a group of refugees, the majority from Cuba and Venezuela, learning to speak English in a free ESL class.
"A lot of the people who come here, people think they're coming from Mexico, they're crossing the border," Fernandez explained. "The people we serve here are mostly people from Afghanistan, people who came from Ukraine, Russia."
In the Mother Teresa Center, 130 Catholic Charities employees help everyone become self-sufficient. People of all faiths are welcome — even those who aren't refugees.
"Muslims, Jewish, we welcome everybody," said Fernandez. "We've helped 54 nationalities here."
The Mother Teresa Center helps pave the way for people to find a home and a job.
"It's complicated to provide for someone who just arrived to our country. You don't have any family members to help you to understand how America works," said Fernandez.
Each refugee who walks through the doors was granted political asylum by the U.S. government. They're living here legally.
Refugees are people fleeing armed conflicts or persecution in other countries. An asylum-seeker is someone who has or intends to apply to be recognized as a refugee, but their application not been processed yet.
The goal in the Mother Teresa Center is to have all refugees working a steady job within 180 days.
"Many places in San Antonio need employees. We have so many factories. We need to have people who are trained and certified to use machinery," Fernandez explained. "So many people come in from Cuba and Venezuela who are staying here legally in the San Antonio area. We can help connect them to amazing restaurants like Mi Tierra or hotels."
The Mother Teresa Center opened Friday, November 8. After only one week in operation, the center is already getting donations.
Along with ESL/online classes and workforce development assistance, the center has a food pantry and a baby boutique. Any member of the community is welcome, should they need supplies.
"Diapers, wipees, anything anyone may need," said Fernandez, showing us a room stocked with baby clothes, blankets, bottles and more.
Free services also include youth mentoring, child care and life skills lessons — like cooking and learning how to use a computer.
"Everybody communicates through WhatsApp, but they don't know how to use computers. Here, they are able to be taught how to use a computer," said Fernandez, showing another technology classroom.
Across the hallway is a workforce development room filled with sewing machines. In the corner of the room is a rack filled with vibrant-colored dresses. A red ruffle dress sits nearby, ready for a red carpet event.
"Some of the women coming from Afghanistan and Ukraine, they are wonderful sewers. They know how to make fantastic clothes," Fernandez explained. "For us, we're giving them the ability to actually work. We're working on creating a website or company so they can actually sell the products online. Our biggest issue right now is to teach them this new technology."
In the legal department upstairs, five lawyers and seven paralegals help with work permits. Fernandez says some attorneys are offering help pro bono.
In a center named after a saint known for her love, care and compassion, volunteers and employees are offering wraparound care.
"Mother Teresa I think is a very universal figure that people will understand about being welcome," said Fernandez. "I know we have a new administration coming in February, but we really think this is going to be here for many, many years...It's very interesting times, but for us it was the right thing to do."