Relief Team Forms on Border When Public Funds Fall Short

After their release from federal detention, Ana shares a hug with her son at the Holding Institute in Laredo, Texas, Aug. 12, 2014. (VOA / V. Macchi)

Laredo Humanitarian Relief Team volunteers Blanca Bermudez and Mario Garcia await the arrival of a Central American family to the Holding Institute in Laredo, Texas, Aug. 12, 2014. (VOA / V. Macchi)

Pastor Mario Garcia loads a migrant family into his truck to get them food and a shower after they were released from federal detention, at the Holding Institute, Laredo, Texas, Aug. 12, 2014. (VOA / V. Macchi)

Boys playing at the Holding Institute, Laredo, Texas, Aug. 12, 2014. (VOA / V. Macchi)

The log book at the Holding Institute in Laredo, Texas, tracks the names, countries of origin, and destinations of the migrant families they've helped, Aug.12, 2014. (VOA / V. Macchi)

Volunteer Blanca Bermudez helps newly-arrived migrant Ana and her sons choose new shoes from the donations at the Holding Institute in Laredo, Texas, Aug. 12, 2014. (VOA / V. Macchi)

A 12-year-old boy, who arrived with his mother and brothers from Mexico, learns to make their donated clothes fit in a small suitcase at the Holding Institute in Laredo, Texas, Aug. 12, 2014. (VOA / V. Macchi)

Members of the Laredo Humanitarian Relief Team attend a vigil for migrants and travelers at Tres Laredos Park in Laredo, Texas, which sits across the river from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Aug. 12, 2014. (VOA / V. Macchi)

A woman raises a battery-powered candle during an August vigil for migrants along the Rio Grande, the river that divides the U.S. and Mexico in Laredo, Texas, Aug. 12, 2014. (VOA / V. Macchi)