McALLEN, Texas - As soon as the glass doors of the low-ceilinged Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center swing open on Tuesday afternoon, a ring of volunteers around the room erupts into applause and whistles and shouts of “bienvenidos!”

It’s the kind of standing ovation fit for a hometown hero. Instead, the 80 or so people filing through the doors are straight from a Border Patrol detention center, some holding toddlers, the adults wearing GPS-monitor ankle bracelets. They have virtually nothing with them except the clothes on their backs; even their shoelaces have been taken away.

“Sometimes this is the first welcome they receive in this country,” said Brenda Riojas, a spokeswoman for the center.

The humble headquarters, which has operated in McAllen since 2014, is a place where asylum seekers just released from detention get one of their first tastes of America outside of confinement. Volunteers pour cups of water and prepare a hot meal. Children can watch TV in kid-sized plastic chairs. The travelers can shower and pick up a new change of clothes.

Some stay for a matter of hours, while others stay overnight on cots in a multipurpose room until it’s time to board another bus. The sojourners have final destinations lined up with relatives in a variety of other states, and volunteers at an intake table write down their bus schedules to help them make it on time.

They’re even given sheets in typewritten English that explain they don’t speak English and need assistance finding their bus — a helpful tool because most speak only Spanish or indigenous languages of Central America.

The migrants usually come from the McAllen Border Patrol Processing Center, where people are supposed to stay for no more than 72 hours as their cases are initially sorted out. But Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who visited it on Monday, said she met two women who had been there for six or seven days, and one hadn’t been able to shower the entire time she was there.

The Border Patrol center has chain link enclosures that have been described as cages — the arrangement makes it easier for guards to monitor their activities than, say, in cinderblock enclosures. Mothers are kept with young children in one part of the facility, while older boys are kept separately, Cortez Masto said.

When they’re dismissed, however, large groups are taken to a bus stop near the Greyhound bus station. The respite center originally emerged when a group of church women, noticing migrants who seemed to be disoriented at the bus stop, started bringing them food.

Responding to the needs of the migrant visitors eventually became too much to handle out near the bus stop, so Catholic Charities got involved and rented out the space for a physical center. It has welcomed a steady flow of immigrants ever since.

On Tuesday, rooms in the small center were overflowing with donations, and more were tucked away into a rented warehouse. Riojas said the group isn’t turning the gifts away — she said that the surplus will help carry the site through the dry times when other stories reclaim the headlines and national attention is no longer trained on the border.

But for now, the family separation crisis is attracting volunteers from all over the country.

Ruth and Steve Mohyla — who are 82 and 85, respectively — were moved to action by the images they saw on TV.

“We said, ‘We have to do something,’” Ruth said.

So between doctor’s appointments and their other volunteer work, the couple jumped in their car and trekked six hours from Houston to McAllen, where they checked into a hotel.

Steve had one rule — just don’t get us arrested.

“I thought she’d go right to the port of entry,” he said about his wife.

Instead, they spoke with the front desk attendant at the hotel, who referred them to Catholic Charities. That afternoon, they found themselves sorting donations and cooking soup just as the group of weary-looking immigrants arrived and filled the room to brimming.

“Any little bit helps,” Ruth said, before turning to the magnitude of the need. “I just wish there was a solution.”