BALTIMORE — Becoming a parent to a 12 year-old overnight would be a daunting task for anyone. But when Jason Herring signed up to take in unaccompanied migrants as they wait to reunite with their parents, he wasn't worried about what would happen when he brought a child into his home. He was worried about what would happen when they left.
“Oh my gosh I'm gonna get really attached to this kid and then in two weeks, they're gonna be gone. The closer it got, especially as you hear them talking on the phone with their parents and getting excited, and you realize how beautiful that reunification is, and how integral you are to that reunification, it ceases becoming a selfish thing. It ceases becoming a thing you are dreading,” Herring said. "I can’t describe to you the joy to see a child get so excited to see someone they love so much."
He's a foster parent for Baltimore's Global Refuge program, previously Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services. In the past few months, he's had five kids in his care at different times, ranging from 7 to 12 years old. All of them have crossed the Southern border, and are waiting to reunite with their loved ones in the U.S.
“These kids are incredibly resilient. They've seen more than most adults will ever see in their lifetime," Herring said.
And foster parents like Herring provide a safe, temporary home for them. But Global Refuge says right now, there's not enough of them.
“We need foster parents to be able to care for the children that we're funded to care for. If we can't sustain that, then it certainly could jeopardize programming,” Amanda Nosel, Associate Director for Foster Care at Global Refuge, said.
As the number of migrants coming over the border has increased, the number of foster parents at Global Refuge hasn't. The organization is in desperate need.
“There certainly have been dire times. I mean, COVID had a huge impact on our programming, especially for foster care. I can't recall a moment where we've needed families more than we do now,” Nosel said.
You don't need to live in Baltimore to become a foster parent. You just need to be able to transport kids to global refuge's site downtown. The process takes about three months; there's background checks, a home study, and training. Find out more here.
Herring says it was pretty painless, and the rewards have far outweighed any challenges.
“It's a beautiful thing. It's a very enriching thing. No matter how long you do it, it's going to stick with you for a long, long time,” Herring said.
"It's an incredibly heartwarming process. It's also temporary. These kids, on average, are in care with us for 30 days or less," Nosel said.
During that time, Herring not only made sure the kids were safe, comfortable, and healthy, but he provided them with fun experiences too - even something as simple as taking them to try pizza for the first time.
“Part of my job as a foster parent is to introduce them to the culture. And that can look like a lot of different things. It doesn’t have to be like, let’s go do all the patriotic things - which I love to do, we have some great patriotic parks here - but it can be food, eating out - pizza and hamburgers," he said. “A great thing about where I live, there’s a really great park, and there’s a really great community built around that park. So they’re always having all kinds of multicultural events there, not only events that may reflect their culture, but reflect cultures that they’re not used to. And I think that’s a really important part of learning about being an American, is learning about all the different cultures that make up being an American. So I think Baltimore is really good for it.”