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NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - After his return home on Tuesday, Bishop Robert Brennan of the Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island reflected on his two-day visit in Texas with immigrant children who have been separated from their parents. Photos highlight his visit to the Brownsville-McAllen area of Texas, where the children are being processed.
"It was moving, encouraging to see people's hope, but it was also very sad," Bishop Brennan said. "If I were to take a word to describe it: everything was very quiet, there was a lot of quiet going through these different facilities."
Bishop Brennan, who works with immigrant families on Long Island, was one of five Catholic bishops chosen to make the trip. He spoke about his visit to the central processing center for newly detained illegal immigrants, many of whom fled violence back home.
"You could see the worry on parents' faces and the sense of having been beaten down, not just by where they were but by everything that led to that point," he said.
But it was his visit to the detention center in a converted Walmart where some 1,400 immigrant boys are being detained that resonated with him the most.
"It was a little bit eerie, a little odd because when you see that many teenagers you're used to a lot of activity and hustle and bustle and yet everything was regimented, which I understand," he said. "You've got to protect the young people."
His third stop was a respite center where those who had been recently released by authorities awaited the next step in their journey.
"We talked a little bit about snow and I asked the young girl, 'Have you ever seen snow?'" he said. "She shook her head. I told her, 'Where you're going vas a ver nieve—you're going to see snow.'"
His words of encouragement were: listen, work together, and pray for change. He hopes it is only a very short matter of time until every family is reunited.