By Jennifer Colosimo
In February, a regular patron of the Broadway Baptist Church (BBC) Community Center in Fort Worth, Texas came to the food pantry with an older relative. What is usually a comfortable, easy shopping experience full of conversation and warm exchanges instead had the relative hiding behind the patron, trying to stay out of the doorways and windows in the waiting area. When the volunteers approached her, she began to cry. She had just come from Mexico and was afraid to leave her house, but she was too hungry and needed clothes. She was worried ICE might see her in the doorway or through the window. On this day, she risked everything because it was her best chance to survive.
Stories like this are common since the executive order was signed in D.C., allowing ICE and other organizations to enter places like the community center in search of immigrants. Men and women who had finally completed their journeys across the border, either to work or reunite with their families, were seemingly trapped. They were forced to forgo essential needs like food, clothing and healthcare, to remain safe. 
That doesn’t sit well for the members of BBC, especially those working at the Community Center. Manager Erin Cooper said, “[The change] was immediate. We were hearing of raids in meat packing plants and other industries in the area. We were hearing whispers amongst our guests. I had started passing out red cards in English and Spanish, and they all had a story. Some would say they didn’t know if they were going to come again, or that they hadn’t left their house in days. For me, every day brought on this overwhelming feeling of tightness. I wondered, is today the day they’re going to knock on our door?”
That door is sacred for the volunteers. Since the 1960s, when residents were fleeing the area in search of better living conditions, BBC committed to staying. They are a steadfast neighbor, serving the people who didn’t have the choice to leave. In time, that group of people were largely immigrants who recently crossed the border. They were looking for work and unable, in most cases, to make ends meet. At the Community Center, they could find refuge, food, clothing and more as they settled in a new place.
“Our main service has always been the food pantry, but we also provide resources for little or no-cost healthcare, clothing for adults and children and sack lunches during the week for day laborers and their families,” Cooper said. “We want to be able to help alleviate the effects of homelessness, sometimes hosting auxiliary events that serve this demographic, often providing school uniforms, winter coats or temporary shelter.”
Today, the Community Center remains a hub for finding family amongst your neighbors. The volunteers build relationships with the families they serve and it is a place where immigrants can be safe, welcomed and cared for. Until, suddenly, it wasn’t.
With the order, families wouldn’t show up for weeks, fearing that if they risked dropping in to get food for their family, they might be arrested and separated from their family. They chose hunger for the sake of safety, risked sickness for the sake of staying hidden.
According to Cooper, the problem is that while ICE says they are only after criminals and dangerous people, she has seen a broad sweeping gesture, trapping innocent people in its wake. That’s why exposure is important. Exposing to the community that these people are their neighbors, their classmates, their coworkers—and then showing those people compassion. It takes everyone to make a difference, Cooper said.
To make a positive impact toward change, she encourages her neighbors to reach out to people supporting immigrant businesses, frequent immigrant-owned shops and restaurants, get out and vote in local elections, show up to city council and school board meetings and hold elected officials accountable.
“I remember speaking with my supervisor before the election, saying that we needed to start preparing for the next year,” she admitted. “What was hypothetical became inevitable, and each day we have to pivot because of a new reckless decision made from the top.”
Luckily, a district court gave an injunction earlier this year to prevent ICE from entering some churches, including BBC. For Cooper and her team, it was a huge sigh of relief.
“We’re getting busier, and I am hopeful we will see some of our old friends again,” she said. “But our guest count has still been low. In fact, we did not get above 300 [in March], which is rare in the market.”
Cooper mentioned that because of the cuts being made to the United States Department of Agriculture programs, the Tarrant Area Food Bank has lost $4.2 million in funding. On top of the challenges they were already facing, now the food pantry is struggling, making for an atmosphere that is wholly uncertain.
BBC’s Pastor, Ryon Price, said that he hopes the families that Broadway ministers to will again be able to access the consistent and dependable resources they need to survive and thrive. He said, “The chaos they’ve been subjected to in recent months is inhumane, and the very opposite of the adequate and hospitable world God commissions us to work to create. Every person is made in the image of God. Geopolitical boundaries do not alter that image. Neither do they determine whom it is that we as Christians are called to love and care for.”
“We have to look at ourselves, work on ourselves and then challenge ourselves to be and do better,” Cooper added. “Our work here is just being people’s humanity, serving people who are often overlooked. Every day I’m challenged by what I see. They look like me, they could be me and they just need to be heard and cared for. We get to say, ‘We see you.’ We know their names. We want to know about them, because now, they’re part of our Broadway family.”
Price continued, “Broadway has been around since 1882. We’ve endured world wars, pandemics, a great depression, a massive fire that destroyed our entire Fort Worth neighborhood and all manner of political administrations, good, bad and worse. As 104-year-old member Mae Cora Peterson, a granddaughter of enslaved persons and church matriarch, used to say about Broadway before she died, ‘Been here will be here, when come here has done come and gone.’ We’ve been here, and we will be here. We shall overcome.”
Broadway plans to host Q&A sessions for volunteers, provide more resources for their visitors and love and protect those patrons even better than before.
“It’s easy to be frozen by fear right now, but it’s important to hold space for it, acknowledge this is not normal, and be brave,” she said. “It is a conscious choice I make daily – to say, ‘I am afraid and I am worried, but so are they. I will not be frozen. I must show up for them. I must be brave.’”
“I am finding hope and motivation in this time in our shared humanity. I look into their eyes and see my brother or sister. The spirit of who we are, especially as Baptists, is rooted in over-the-top hospitality, embracing the stranger and believing every person is welcome in our community, and I will do whatever I can to ensure this remains true.”