By Analiz González
Buckner International
(BROWNWOD, Texas) — Baptist Immigration Services of Brownwood opened its doors April 16 to meet the need for Christian immigration services in Central Texas.
BISB exists, according to its mission, to "show the love of Christ by offering affordable legal immigration services to Brown County."
Jesus Romero, pastor of Iglesia Nuevo Amancer and co-director of the program with his wife Elsa, said the couple knew someone who was charged $5,000 to obtain U.S. residency, but she was "left hanging."
"They took advantage of her," Romero said. "So we prayed about it and then we met Alex Camacho, who has done this ministry in McKinney since the 80s, and we knew the Lord wanted us to be part of it."
Romero said that there are no other immigration service agencies in the Brownwood area. BISB does not harbor undocumented immigrants or encourage illegal activity.
"There are undocumented immigrants who would be eligible for help and we want them to find legal relief," he said.
He went on to say that people in the community have been very supportive of the program, providing a new tile floor, office supplies and the first four months of rent. Someone even anonymously donated a new computer.
Buckner International and the Baptist General Convention of Texas were involved in helping this program get started through the Immigration Service and Aid Center (ISAAC), a collaboration that helps churches serve immigrants, said Richard Muñoz, director of the ISAAC program.
Muñoz said that each site served by ISAAC is an independent, autonomous agency. "We don't control what they do," Muñoz said.
"We just help them become recognized by the government and we give them help along the way. ... We provide some of the tools and let them take care of construction."
Romero said ISAAC helped them get their accreditation package ready.
"They provided us with software that guaranteed that we would have the nation's best electronic law library at our disposal," he said. "We feel that ISAAC is really walking with us."
BISB is the second operating ISAAC affiliated program in the state of Texas. The other program is the Ruth Project, in Waco.
For more information on ISAAC, contact Richard Muñoz at richard.munoz@bgct.org or visit www.isaacproject.org.
