Some of the children among the hundreds migrants that were left in downtown El Paso, Texas, earlier this week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials were treated with a gift-filled Christmas thanks to two employees at a local hotel, CBS News reports.
Ruben Garcia, the director of Annunciation House, a shelter that works with ICE to house migrants, reportedly said that two employees worked at a hotel where he booked 30-40 rooms for some of the hundreds of migrants who were unexpectedly left at a Greyhound bus station in El Paso this week.
{mosads}Garcia said he initially had concerns about how the hotel staff would react to the large group of migrants upon their arrival, most of whom he described as “very poor” and “very humble people.”
“In the back of my mind I’m very aware of the fact that they have no idea what I’m talking about,” Garcia said. “They think they have idea — they have no idea what the population is.”
But Garcia said that shortly after immigrants were being checked into the hotel during the evening, two front desk employees called their husbands and told them to “buy every coloring book, every little truck, simple little gifts, buy them all” at any store that was still open at the time.
Garcia went on to say that the employees and their husbands had even gone as far as to wrap all of the gifts and left them underneath a tree for the children before Christmas morning.
“On Christmas Day they had all of these gifts for children who never, ever, ever in their life experienced a Christmas where they received a gift,” Garcia said.
Garcia also said that others in the community have been helpful in contributing to his group house’s efforts to feed and house the group of migrants.
Garcia added that Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke served meals on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.
“It’s so important for elected officials to make time to come and help serve meals in one of our hospitality sites,” Garcia said.