Tom Kiefer

Those who have entered the U.S. illegally, their personal possessions and belongings too easily get lost as they are processed and travel through the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol system, the enormous amount of belongings, such as extra clothing, socks, shoes and personal items such as rosaries, Bibles, belts, underwear, toothbrushes, soap, was in many ways incomprehensible (to me), and I am certain much of this was not meant to be discarded.

I cannot understand why anyone would want to voluntarily give up an item like a rosary, Bible or photo of their child, or for that matter an extra pair of shoes, pants, shirt or jacket, these are pictures of how people and their personal belongings are treated. If someone wants to judge the ethics and morality of all this, it is up to them to decide what is right and what is wrong and, if they choose to do so, to act upon those feelings.

For a number of years, I was allowed to take the canned and nonperishable food (powdered milk, granola bars) to our local food bank, but that came to an end about a year and half before I resigned to work on this project full time.