Cecilia Garcia recalls the first time she drove past churches in Phoenix, Arizona, and saw groups of asylum seekers being dropped off by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“People were arriving by the hundreds. It was chaotic everywhere you looked,” she told Global Citizen.

In December 2018, asylum seekers who were released from migrant detention centers began arriving at Latino churches in the Phoenix Valley.

Migrants, who were typically arriving in the US after months of long, dangerous journeys by foot, were facing critical conditions.

“People were dehydrated and traumatized. They had fungus on their feet from walking in the river and wearing the same shoes for days,” Garcia said.

In recent years, the number of migrants seeking entry into the US has increased, which has led to processing backlogs and dire conditions in overcrowded facilities. The government’s handling of asylum seekers, including forced separation of children from parents and allegations of forced sterilization of women, has been widely criticized.

Garcia, who is a single mom and small business owner, founded the nonprofit One Hundred Angels in 2018, just months before she noticed the influx of asylum seekers in Phoenix.

She originally founded the organization to provide humanitarian assistance in Central America. And while she hadn’t planned on providing assistance closer to home, she quickly changed course when the need arose.

But she leaned on her organizational and management skills, and within days, the mother of two teenage sons was able to successfully set up pop-up medical stations at churches where asylum seekers were arriving. She collected medical supplies and coordinated volunteers, including first responders, nurses, and medics.

Read the full article about migrant children by Jacky Habib at Global Citizen.