A group of Harrisonburg churchgoers is offering free rides to immigrants in need of transportation to legal and medical appointments. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
About once a month, Andy and Frances Sale – a retired minister and public school counselor – hop into the car and head for Richmond, Sterling, D.C., or Charlottesville. Andy's the driver; Frances, the navigator.
FRANCES SALE: And some of these places are very difficult to find, and sometimes we go into D.C. to the embassies. They're very much downtown and very, very busy places where parking is very difficult.
They have a different passenger with them on each of these trips – an immigrant from the Harrisonburg area who has a check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an immigration court appointment, or a medical appointment that day. The Sales are two of the founding leaders of VANITA, which stands for Valley Area Network Immigrant Transportation Assistance.
ANDY SALE: These are people who do the work that is so important for us to carry on as a country … a lot of immigrants work in the poultry industry and agricultural industry. They work in the warehousing industry … the construction industry. So anything we can do to help these, our neighbors, our immigrant neighbors, to me is a step forward.
About seven years ago, the Sales were part of a group within Trinity Presbyterian Church that started talking about becoming a "sanctuary church." The national denomination defines this as providing a sanctuary space for people with final orders of deportation to shelter from ICE – the agency's previous policy generally prevented ICE officers from conducting arrests at schools and churches. But as the congregants discussed immigrants' needs with local resource organizations, they identified a more pressing concern –
ANDY SALE: Transportation of immigrants and refugees to ICE hearings outside of Harrisonburg, mostly in Manassas … in order to maintain a legal status.
As one local mother and poultry plant worker from Honduras previously told WMRA, around this time she was required to check in with ICE every week in Manassas, hiring drivers for $100 per trip.
There are nonprofit and municipal ride services in the area for other sections of the population with transportation needs, like seniors and those with disabilities. But nothing like this for immigrants. A 2022 report from Virginia Commonwealth University notes that while immigrants have a higher labor force participation rate than U.S.-born citizens, a "major barrier [to integration] … is the difficulty of reaching employment, government offices or services providers until one obtains a car."
Members of three congregations – Trinity Presbyterian, Shalom Mennonite, and Community Mennonite – came together to form VANITA. Laurie Miller, of Shalom, was one of those founding members.
LAURIE MILLER: I've spent some time in Mexico and Central America.
He was interested in volunteering his time and mileage –
MILLER: Seeing some of the hardships that the folks live in Central American countries, and why they might want to come here, but yet when they get here, they don't have the resources they need to thrive sometimes. … I usually try to pick up some of the longer rides. … I guess, probably more than anything, since the pandemic, I've taken folks to Charlottesville, to UVa, especially the children's hospital.
They have about 20 drivers now, but still aren't meeting the demand of referrals they get from local community organizations. While people from our broadcast region have been detained at ICE check-ins and court hearings, such as the April arrests caught on camera at an Albemarle County courthouse, the VANITA drivers said no one has been arrested so far during one of their trips. Their passengers do seem more anxious now, though, than they did in years prior.
FRANCES SALE: Mostly, they're just very quiet. … You can just tell that they're very anxious.
ANDY SALE: Well, there's a marked difference in their attitudes from going to leaving.
VANITA collects donations for drivers who ask to be reimbursed for gas. But the Sales said that they, and most of the volunteers, pay for it themselves.
ANDY SALE: Frances and I, throughout our ministry together, have always been looking for "the least among us," and how we might be able to assist them.
That's a reference to the Bible passage in the book of Matthew, where Jesus says that those who give food or water, invite into their homes, clothe, nurse through sickness, or visit in prison "the least of these brothers and sisters of mine," they do for Jesus himself. That's who the Sales see in their passengers.
FRANCES SALE: And we are all immigrants, and this is a way you can help fellow men and women and families that are really struggling and want what's best for their families, and they want to be citizens. They want to be contributing to our country, and this is a very easy way to feel like you're doing your part.
Anyone who is interested in learning more about VANITA and their vetting process for volunteers can reach out through the website trinitypresbyterianharrisonburg.org.
