Assemblyman Marc Levine to visit with migrants on Christmas

On Christmas Day, Assemblyman Marc Levine plans to deliver toothbrushes and other dental care items to migrants at two shelters in Tijuana.

If that seems like an odd choice for holiday giving, don’t blame the North Bay lawmaker.

“It feels like a lump of coal,” Levine admits.

But the four boxes of dental hygiene kits are what the shelters’ nonprofit operators requested and are relatively easy for him to deliver, said Levine, a San Rafael Democrat who has authored two state laws supporting young immigrants.

Levine, whose district includes the southern portion of Sonoma County and about half of Santa Rosa, is making a personal fact-finding visit to both sides of the border at San Diego, all at his own expense. He planned to catch a ?7:30 a.m. flight to San Diego and spend the day engaging with migrants seeking asylum in the United States.

“I was motivated to hear their stories, to find out what they are fleeing from,” he said Monday. “And help make their Christmas a little brighter.”? Thousands of migrants - many escaping poverty and violence in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala - are massed on the Mexican side of the border seeking safe harbor in the United States.

President Donald Trump labeled the migrants, who came north in a highly publicized caravan, threats to national security and dispatched troops to the border.

A San Diego-based nonprofit called Border Angels, which operates one of the Tijuana shelters, calls their condition “a humanitarian crisis unlike anything we have seen in recent history” in the San Diego-Tijuana area, described as the world’s largest land border crossing.

Levine’s first stop will be at the San Diego Rapid Response Network Shelter, where he will serve Christmas lunch to about 100 men, women and children.

The network, a coalition that includes the American Civil Liberties Union and Jewish Family Services, opened a shelter in October that has now served about 3,000 migrants who were left homeless in San Diego after being vetted by Homeland Security.

“They come with virtually nothing,” said Jean Walcher, spokeswoman for the network. “Some might have a small backpack or just a shopping bag.”

The shelter, which can house 97 people at a time, provides migrants with food, clothing and temporary shelter, and pays for bus or airline tickets to get most on the way to their final destination in a day or two, she said. Most have court dates at their destination to assess their eligibility for asylum.

A GoFundMe site to support the shelter has raised nearly $120,000 of its $150,000 goal.

Joining Levine at the San Diego shelter will be state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat, along with Assemblymembers Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a newly elected East Bay Democrat, and San Diego Democrat Lorena Gonzalez.

Levine will continue alone, crossing into Tijuana to visit - and distribute dental hygiene kits - at Embajada Migrante, run by Border Angels at a house next to the border wall at the beach, and Instituto Madre Asunta, a nonprofit shelter for women and children.

Levine has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s border policies, arguing that they have besmirched America’s reputation as a haven for people facing violence and injustice.

“The Statue of Liberty is a beacon of hope for the whole world,” he said. “The best America in our hearts is the one that throws the door wide open for those who are seeking shelter in a safe place.”

Christmas Day, he said, is the ideal time to support efforts to render that service.

And besides, as a Jew whose family celebrates Hanukkah and not Christmas, Levine said his one-day trip does not conflict with an event at home.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.