EVERETT – The Welcome Circle at St. Mary Magdalen Parish has made all the difference for Venezuelan Martín Landaeta and his family. 

Landaeta arrived in the United States two years ago. A few months ago he was reunited with two sons through the humanitarian parole process.

“He waited a long time, and he is a very faithful man, praying and praying. We kept the faith, and it was all glory to God,” said Isidora Cervantes Spotz, leader of St. Mary Magdalen’s Welcome Circle for Venezuelans.

The parish has a circle to serve Ukrainian immigrants and another for those arriving from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, the latter of which was launched in October 2023.

The Everett parish is among Catholic communities in the Archdiocese of Seattle and across the U.S. who have been supporting migrant families fleeing crisis situations by participating in the Welcome Circles. The program was developed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Migration and Refugee Services.

Michele Bulatovic, who manages the program, explained that these groups help newly arrived immigrants find housing, employment and health services. In addition to helping them navigate how to enroll children in school, volunteers also offer support with household supplies and connect them with other available resources.

“They do a lot to try to help get these people on a good footing when they arrive, and then hopefully eventually to self-sufficiency,” she added.

According to Migrant and Refugee Services, 226 circles have been formed and have supported nearly 350 people from Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. More than 1,000 volunteers around the country have sought to be part of these circles.

In the Archdiocese of Seattle, 24 Welcome Circles have sponsored 39 families; 10 more circles are preparing to sponsor families, including families living in refugee camps around the world, according to Amy Nash, the archdiocese’s Refugee Welcome Circles coordinator. The archdiocese has assisted many more immigrant families with various needs, Nash said. (Read more about Welcome Circles in the Archdiocese of Seattle.)

Bulatovic said the circles “are really groups of everyday Americans — anybody with citizenship or permanent residency who is interested in supporting a newcomer. Many times there are members in the group who were once refugees or asylum-seekers themselves, and they’re kind of wanting to pay it forward. These groups really act like what resettlement agencies normally do,” she explained.

Martín Landaeta and his family pose with Bishop Eusebio Elizondo after a Mass at St. James Cathedral that was part of a welcome event hosted by St. James Immigrant and Refugee Ministry. The Mass was followed by a meal of tamales. (Courtesy Archdiocese of Seattle)

Sowing the seeds of welcome

Bulatovic told OSV News that the Welcome Circles stem from a national initiative called the Sponsor Circle Program that began in 2021, when resettlement agencies in this country were trying to serve tens of thousands of Afghans fleeing their country after the Taliban returned to power there.

In September 2022, the USCCB joined the private sponsorship efforts launched by the U.S. government to help Ukrainian immigrants. Places like the archdioceses of Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia, as well as the Diocese of Cleveland, have been instrumental in welcoming Ukrainian families.

“We worked very closely to support them in their efforts to support community members who want to sponsor Ukrainians,” Bulatovic said.

As of January 2023, the Welcome Circles support other groups of migrants who qualify for parole or temporary stay permits.

“When the U.S. government established parole processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, we also decided to support those nationalities,” she said.

The government’s humanitarian parole program — which recently survived a challenge in the courts — grants short-term legal status in the United States to up to 30,000 asylum seekers a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela combined. The Biden administration indicated that the program was intended, in part, to deter illegal crossings. It grants some asylum-seekers two years of parole, or temporary permission, to live and work in the U.S., if they have a financial sponsor.

In 2023, the government — in collaboration with refugee resettlement agencies and other organizations — called for groups of at least five or more people to join together in what is called a “sponsor circle” to welcome new arrivals into their community. These programs — like the USCCB’s Welcome Circles — allow religious groups, community groups and other interested individuals to offer sponsorship to those in need of immediate assistance.

“We are a melting pot,” Bulatovic said “It’s been built from the labor of immigrants and most of us have that connection. It’s sometimes forgotten, sadly. But I think it will eventually maybe strengthen our communities,” she added.

According to figures from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, as of the end of fiscal year 2023, more than 150,000 Ukrainian nationals and their immediate family members had entered the United States under the U4U (Union for Ukraine) process and nearly 238,000 individuals had received temporary stay permits through the CHNV process for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

But beyond the numbers, each case represents the story of an immigrant who dreams of a hopeful future.

The word “solidarity” perfectly sums up much of the work of the volunteers who serve in these circles. Volunteers support each other — even if they are from other parishes — to help those who need to start over, so that their future does not depend on good luck but on concrete facts and trustworthy information that guide them while they learn how this country works, program organizers said.

Venezuelan immigrant Martín Landaeta, left, is pictured with fellow Knights of Columbus from his parish, St. Mary Magdalen in Everett. Landaeta and his family were helped by the parish’s Welcome Circle program. (OSV News photo/Courtesy of Welcome Circles Seattle)

Helping reunite a family

Cervantes, of St. Mary Magdalen Parish, received training on how to best assist immigrants who are fleeing dire situations in their countries of origin. She expressed gratitude for the support the parish circle found in Nash and Chris Koehler, director of the Missions and Immigrant Affairs for the archdiocese. They have provided guidance and connected volunteers with MRS resources and tools to accompany new arrivals, Cervantes said.

“We are connected with other ministries within the church and with other resources outside of St. Mary Magdalen,” she added.

According to Ron Enneking, pastoral assistant for the administration of St. Mary Magdalen, this community has more than 3,000 Hispanic, Vietnamese, Filipino, African and Anglo families.

“It’s a very welcoming parish with lots of different groups,” Enneking said.

The parish is located in an area with a high rate of homeless, where working-class families live and are part of the parish, Enneking said. Limited resources and great need have not been an obstacle for solidarity to manifest itself among community members, religious and volunteers, he said.

After helping Landaeta, the Welcome Circle led by Cervantes provided more help when his son, Samuel Landaeta, arrived in the U.S. with one of his brothers last August.

“They helped us with the whole legal process before we came here,” Samuel Landaeta said. “They filled out the paperwork and the parole application,” he added.

Samuel is grateful to have had the support of his Welcome Circle volunteers, from whom he received financial help for rent, clothes and paperwork, among other expenses.

 It was also with the help of this group of volunteers that Samuel found out how to validate his degree and enroll in college.

“I talked to a group leader, and she gave me several tools to look at the option of studying,” said Samuel, 23, who is a telecommunications technician.

 He urged people who stigmatize all Venezuelans after seeing news reports of crimes perpetrated by some Venezuelan migrants, to know that the majority of asylum-seekers from his homeland are good people.

“There are many of us who arrived with the dream of continuing to advance, to find ways to adapt, to progress, and to be useful citizens for this country,” Samuel said.

Marietha Góngora V. writes for OSV News from Washington, D.C.