Sister Norma and the ‘Cowboy Priest’ on the frontline of mercy

To Trump supporters they are worse than a menace, writes Andrew Buncombe from McAllen, but for the migrants of Central America they are heroes

Snipes and Pimentel are in the news again, providing food and shelter to asylum seekers (AFP/Getty)

Every superhero needs a catchy name. So people call Father Roy Snipes the “Cowboy Priest”. Norma Pimentel doesn’t have a fancy moniker but she has been referred to as the “Pope’s favourite nun”. And along the Rio Grande Valley and beyond, people know her simply as “Sister Norma”.

Are they heroes? To Donald Trump and his supporters, seeking to build a wall on the border with Mexico and to keep out would-be migrants and asylum seekers, they are anything but. Yet, to the countless poor and aspirational people from Central America, hungering for a better life for their children, and to whom they have given aid, sustenance and dignity, they surely are.

“Sister Pimentel has been on the frontlines of mercy for three decades,” Texas politician Julián Castro, who served in Barack Obama’s cabinet, wrote last year, when Time magazine included her in a list of its 100 most influential people.