By Reagan Hunter | Reporter
For many Baylor students, service happens through campus organizations, church groups or university-sponsored programs. For members of the Heart of Texas Network for Immigrant Rights (HOTNIR), however, service extends beyond Baylor and into the broader Waco community.
Over a year ago, Dr. Blake Burleson, former senior lecturer in the religion department, and Dr. Mark Brickhouse founded HOTNIR, a volunteer-led organization dedicated to supporting immigrants and migrants in the Waco area. From helping people get where they need to go to providing food, connecting families with healthcare, and advocating for immigrant rights, HOTNIR has grown into a community of about 400 volunteers working across 11 teams.
“We are an informal network of individuals who contribute our resources, skills and time to support immigrants and migrants in the Waco area,” HOTNIR co-founder Dr. Blake Burleson said. “We have about 400 volunteers and we have 11 teams at work.”
Burleson said the organization was created after concerns arose about how immigration policies were affecting local families.
“We became very concerned about the rhetoric from the Trump administration about mass deportation,” Burleson said. “So we began to organize.”
Burleson said most of the families HOTNIR serves are Hispanic immigrants. When these families face challenges, volunteers step in to help meet their basic needs, whether that means providing food, arranging transportation or helping them access healthcare.
“Usually their family no longer has a provider at that point, so they can’t pay bills,” Burleson said. “They can’t get groceries and so on. For a couple of months, we try to get them back on their feet by providing transportation, healthcare, food and other support.”
The organization also helps preserve immigrants’ personal stories through an archival project in collaboration with Baylor’s oral history program.
“We interview people that are being affected in our community, and we’re preserving these stories for posterity,” Burleson said.
Among the students involved is Anne Howard, HOTNIR’s student ambassador. Howard first encountered the organization before it officially existed while participating in Baylor’s Office of Engaged Learning after studying abroad.
“HOTNIR actually was not developed when I first heard about it,” Howard said. “It was just an idea that Dr. Burleson and Dr. Brickhouse were kind of just chatting about over coffee.”
Howard said her experiences living and studying abroad helped her connect with immigrant communities.
“I’ve lived in other countries where I haven’t known the mother language, and I’ve been an immigrant into the country,” Howard said. “I feel a personal connection, and I could relate with those people who are navigating an entirely different country with different systems and different norms.”
Before joining HOTNIR, Howard worked with English as a Second Language programs and frequently heard stories about challenges immigrant families faced.
“When I heard about HOTNIR and Blake and Mark’s idea for it, I immediately jumped on it because it felt like a natural next progression,” Howard said. “Instead of just hearing about the stories, I would be able to actually help and initiate some type of change in our community.”
One of Howard’s most memorable experiences came while helping grow the organization during its early stages.
“Mark and I made a goal of having 400 people join HOTNIR in the year,” Howard said. “We had hit that goal by April. We were not even half a year in, and we had already had a little under 400 members.”
She said the response demonstrated how many people in Waco were willing to help.
Another defining moment came when she represented HOTNIR at a public rally.
“I got to represent HOTNIR,” Howard said. “After, I got a standing ovation. It was really fun to hear how many people came up after and thanked us for what we were doing.”
The interactions that followed left a lasting impression.
“Some people were even in tears and were like, ‘We didn’t realize that people cared,'” Howard said.
Howard believes HOTNIR offers Baylor students a unique opportunity to connect with the larger Waco community.
“I think when you’re at Baylor, you get a great experience volunteering with different groups, but you also miss out on a lot of what’s really going on in Waco,” Howard said. “I’m sure you’ve heard of the Baylor bubble.”
Unlike many university-sponsored volunteer programs, HOTNIR gives students the chance to work directly with local residents and make a difference in their community, Howard said.
“What HOTNIR is, is the community,” Howard said. “When you’re joining HOTNIR, you’re not just joining another Baylor experience. You’re actually joining a community of Wacoans who are coming together to help other people in McLennan County.”
For students hoping to become more involved in Waco, Howard said HOTNIR provides an opportunity to step outside campus life and engage with real community needs.
“If you’re trying to get out of the Baylor bubble and really see what’s going on and actually connect with the community, this was the most enlightening experience that I’ve had,” Howard said.
For Burleson, the mission remains simple.
“We have a voice,” Burleson said. “Hopefully we can support the voiceless.”
