America’s ‘immigrants’ nun’ says many are afraid to even go to the supermarket

Vatican City, Oct 5, 2025 / 07:00 am

Sister Norma Pimentel is known as “the immigrants’ nun.” For over a decade, she has directed the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley (CCRGV) Humanitarian Respite Center, a humanitarian aid center located in McAllen, Texas, on the border with Mexico. From there, she has provided assistance to people who arrive in the United States seeking asylum.

According to Pimentel, the increase in arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to expel immigrants who lack legal status in the country has unleashed a climate of fear in communities.

‘Raids are taking place everywhere’

“People are extremely afraid … they know that nowhere is safe, they pick you up anywhere, and you can’t even go to the supermarket because raids are taking place everywhere,” the religious explained.

Last year, the center received a legal request from the Texas attorney general’s office to compel a CCRGV representative to sit for a deposition regarding its immigrant assistance efforts, although the case was subsequently dismissed by a judge.

Pimentel said the sense of widespread fear has also spread to other residents of the Rio Grande Valley. Many now think: “If I help him, maybe something will happen to me too,” she told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, shortly after participating in the Oct. 2 “Refugees and Migrants in Our Common Home” conference with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican.

The initiative, part of the Jubilee of Migrants, is the first global meeting promoted by the Vatican to bring together religious institutions, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and experts dedicated to addressing the challenges of migratory flows.

At the meeting, the pontiff asked all of the participants to promote a culture of “reconciliation and hope” to address the “urgent challenges” of migration.

‘You can’t say you’re pro-life if you don’t defend immigrants’

“The Holy Father strongly affirms that immigrants are human beings who must be recognized and treated with dignity. Therefore, you can’t say you’re pro-life if you don’t defend the lives of human beings and immigrants,” Pimentel pointed out.

Every so often, dozens of exhausted people knock on her door, their bodies reflecting the consequences of a hellish journey. Most travel hundreds of miles on foot to reach the U.S.-Mexico border.

Pimentel, a sister of the Missionaries of Jesus, who works side by side with the bishop of Brownsville, Daniel Flores, always greets them with a warm welcome: “We are right on the border, there with the immigrants, with the migrant families, who are truly part of our Church.”

“We are very versed in how to be present, how to speak and encourage people to be good neighbors, to help each other, to not feel afraid that the government won’t allow us to live our religion, our faith, and to be present to help people when they need it,” she explained.

The most important thing is “that they don’t feel abandoned and alone” and that they realize that, despite the growing hostility, “they do matter in this life.”

This total commitment is born from the conviction that every person who suffers bears the face of Christ. In any case, Pimentel doesn’t hide the fact that she sometimes feels overwhelmed. “We don’t have enough resources,” she lamented.

She’s also convinced that giving these migrants a face and sharing the horror stories they endure is the best antidote to society being fed up with immigrants: “When I see a crying child who comes up to me and says, ‘Help me,’ with tears streaming down his face, [I want] to be able to share that with other people. That way, people can feel that pain, the cries of that child or that mother who is scared and afraid of how to protect her children.”

That’s why she never misses an opportunity to make known the pain of these people because “when you get close to a human being who is suffering, your heart connects and you change.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.