McAllen’s Municipal Park a haven for immigrants

McALLEN — Sprawled across a concrete picnic table at the center of the park, a group of young men recently arrived from Honduras and Nicaragua to share a beer and discuss where they might find a room for the night.

The conversation drifts to the availability of work in New Orleans before a police car passes through the park’s parking lot, turning everyone silent.

“They’re always coming in here and giving us trouble,” one man, who declined to give his name, said in Spanish.

Over the last year, Municipal Park — located in central McAllen off 23rd Street — has become a haven for undocumented immigrants.

On their way north or looking to stay put here, new arrivals from Central America and Mexico seem to inevitably find their way to this particular piece of city green space.

Recently, their presence has caught the attention of city officials, who — incensed by the sheer number of people sleeping in the park and the trash they leave behind — are trying to force the undocumented immigrants out.

In the mornings, parks maintenance crews herd just-awoken men and women out before the crews begin their regular clean-up.

In the afternoons and evenings, police patrols regularly pass by, occasionally calling in U.S. Border Patrol agents to arrest anyone unable to provide proof of immigration status, said McAllen police Chief Victor Rodriguez.

“We’re limited in what we can do because it is a public-access facility,” he said. “It’s a nuisance for the people in the neighborhood and unfair for the people who go there. It spills over into the park and we have to deal with it.”

The park’s attraction seems to be tied to the nearby Salvation Army shelter.

The only facility of its kind in the city, the Salvation Army offers two free meals a day and bed space for 65.

More so, the front of the property has become a gathering spot for day laborers, who in the mornings stand waiting for construction foremen and landscapers to come by and offer work.

“They’re here trying to get established and often finding it very difficult,” said Dan Ford, a Salvation Army officer and pastor.

“There’s not enough work to keep them going, just a day here and a day there. And if they don’t find work they’re stuck hanging around all day.”

Salvation Army policy forbids anyone not residing in the shelter from being inside between meals.

Municipal Park, only a couple hundred yards away and complete with bathrooms and trees to sit under, would be an obvious place to spend the day for those who can’t find work.

There, different groups — some composed of undocumented immigrants and some not — set up around the picnic tables.

They take turns walking to the convenience store across the street for beer and food, as teenage boys noisily roll back and forth in the adjacent skate park.

If the police come by, the immigrants might leave for an hour or two.

But most have caught on to the fact that city police don’t have the authority to enforce immigration law.

“One of the officers asked me if I had documentation. I told him I did and he said fine,” said one man who gave his name as Antonio in Spanish. He said he actually lived nearby illegally with his sisters and mother.

“I saw it on a show back in Mexico.

“They can’t do anything. I know my rights.”