Catholic Charities celebrated the grand opening of a new immigrant service center on San Antonio’s northwest side Friday morning, aimed at helping refugees transition to life in the United States.
The new 40,560-square foot center, named the Mother Teresa Center, offers comprehensive services for refugees including a food pantry, clothes closet, youth mentoring program, workforce development program, ESL education classes, case management services and legal assistance all aimed at fostering self-sufficiency.
More than 100 people crowded into the center’s parking lot Friday for a ribbon cutting, which included a blessing by Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller and remarks by State Sen. José Menéndez (D-26) and Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4).
The new center comes to the Alamo City just as president-elect Donald Trump readies to take office again with the promise of implementing a mass deportation effort on day one of his second term. The new center’s resources, especially its legal assistance, will hopefully be of great help to refugees coming to San Antonio seeking a better life, Catholic Charities President and CEO J. Antonio Fernandez told the San Antonio Report.
Antonio Fernandez added that the center has been two years in the making, and has been under construction for the past six months. Including the Mother Teresa Center, Catholic Charities now has 13 resource centers and locations around San Antonio, Antonio Fernandez said. The charity notably took over running the the city’s Migrant Resource Center (MRC) in Oct. 2022. Asked how important a center like this is for refugee immigrants, Antonio Fernandez responded “very.”
“The legal department — with Trump, or without Trump — even under the Biden administration — it takes around 12 months for a person who is legally here to actually be able to get a work permit,” he said. “We need them with papers. We need them to work legally, we really need to help them to work.”
Antonio Fernandez said he hopes the Mother Teresa Center becomes a model for other groups in how it aims to be inclusive and respective to all traditions, religions and beliefs.
Menéndez, the son of immigrant parents, told the Report he is very impressed with the new center. He added that under the new administration the Mother Teresa Center will be a beacon of hope for families looking to start their life over in the U.S.
“These types of places are always important, but probably now more than ever,” Menéndez said. “Places like our city, our county, are going to play a bigger role when there may be the possibility of national policies [at play] that are at odds with the way we feel.”
Its important for San Antonio to keep being San Antonio, he said, adding places like this new center are critical for helping immigrants overcome some of the many hardships they face.
Garcia-Siller, back to work after a brief hospital stint due to prolonged illness, said he is very excited about the new center. A photo of himself from 1992 posing with Mother Teresa sits on the front desk of the new center.
“We want to serve people well and with quality,” he said hoarsely.
