Yolanda Garcia is a teacher at Casa Kolping. “If you ask the kids,” she says, “their biggest dream is to cross to the United States.”

In the homelands of many migrants, school isn’t a safe place because of violence and gangs. At Casa Kolping, kids can ride to school on secure buses. At another Ciudad Juarez shelter, Buen Samaritano, the teachers come straight to the students.

Buen Samaritano is Spanish for “good Samaritan.” You can look up the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10. Jesus is answering the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

A Methodist pastor and his wife lead Buen Samaritano. The shelter can house more than 70 migrants at a time. Many of these migrants are kids. Children sweep desert dust out of an area that once served as a temple. The altar is curtained off to create a classroom.

Ten-year-old Aritzi Ciriaco is in fourth grade. She has been at Buen Samaritano since August with her parents and grandparents. She can’t wait to get started on the day’s school work. She hopes to make her home in America. So she wants to learn English and get used to U.S. schools before she crosses the border.

And what about when the kids do cross the border? U.S. law gives them a right to a free, public education. Many U.S. teachers want these new students to feel welcome. Some U.S. schools stock libraries with Spanish books and hang banners from different countries in the hall. Who is my neighbor? For these teachers, it’s any kid who needs to learn, no matter where home used to be.