Government Failed Immigrants in Katrina Aftermath

New Report Claims Katrina Response Failed to Aid Latinos; Bureaucracy, Red Cross Insensitivity, and the Federal Government’s Preoccupation With Immigration Enforcement Led to Many Latinos Not Getting Aid
Epoch Times, March 5, 2006
By Nicholas Zifcak

The Hurricane Katrina “disaster response, both public and private was a disaster,” said Janet Murguia, president and CEO of National Council of La Raza, “for the Hispanic community and other communities of color.”

Now six months after Hurricane Katrina turned New Orleans into a disaster area, reflection on the disaster response continues. The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) explored how Latinos were overlooked after Katrina hit in its report released Tuesday February 28, In the Eye of the Storm: How the Government and Private Response to Hurricane Katrina Failed Latinos.

A major reason the response overlooked Latinos was the miscalculation of the number of Latinos living in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Initial reports estimated the number of Hispanics in the region as only 100,000. Using Census data and other sources, NCLR’s report estimates the number is closer to 230,000. This miscalculation may have been why evacuation warnings were issued in English only, although even 100,000 is still a large number with potentially thousands who can only read Spanish.

The report criticizes the federal government for letting immigration documentation interfere with its humanitarian aid response. Citing a Los Angeles Times article, the report stated that FEMA did not provide emergency housing to Latino residents at an apartment complex in a New Orleans’ suburb, because officials assumed the Latinos were undocumented. Further investigation uncovered that many of these Hispanics were legal residents and eligible for emergency assistance. Additionally, FEMA’s eligibility rules do not prohibit undocumented immigrants from taking refuge in emergency shelters. But even immigrant families with U.S. citizen children were reluctant to seek assistance for fear that immigration officials would detain them.

“For the first time in over twenty years, the federal government failed to suspend immigration enforcement to allow all victims to come forward to access food, water, and temporary shelter,” said Ms. Murguia at a press conference to present the report.

The NCLR report criticizes Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for not terminating all immigration enforcement, as former INS Commissioner James Ziglar did after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Similarly, Congress could have temporarily suspended immigrant restrictions on other sources of aid such as Medicaid, welfare, and food stamps.

“To hear of two instances [of undocumented immigrants being placed in deportation proceedings] had an enormous chilling effect on people coming forward and getting that kind of assistance. People were very frightened that if they came forward for any sort of assistance that they would get immediately deported,” shared Ms. Murguia from her experience traveling the affected region.

Red Cross Fails to Attend to Latinos Needs
The NCLR report criticized the American Red Cross (ARC) for a lack of diversity in its staff, board, and volunteer corps. The inexperience with diverse communities resulted in “volunteers evicting Latino hurricane victims,” and “requesting documentation proving legal status as a condition for receiving assistance,” cites the report.

“Well, if you re not going to be a diverse institution and if you are not going to be a diverse organization, well for goodness sakes set up the kind of partnerships that allow you to leverage those folks, and those individuals, and those leaders who know how to connect with those communities,” criticized Ms. Murguia.

But when a bilingual social worker tried to help the ARC communicate with evacuees she was told she would first need to complete “diversity training.” The NCLR report ascribes this to the ARC’s “burdensome bureaucracy” and lack of officials and volunteers familiar with serving diverse communities.

To make matters worse, law enforcement officers raided ARC shelters in the weeks after Katrina, racially-profiling Latinos and then ordering them to leave based on assumptions that they were undocumented workers and not entitled to aid like other hurricane survivors.

Ms. Murguia tempered the criticism adding that there are some individuals within the Red Cross with whom NCLR has been working, but so far they have made little progress.

“And it is not that there haven’t been some well-intentioned people there, but again if you realize and understand they are the primary [emergency response] agency and receive the bulk of contributions, and if you look at the lack of diversity, it is appalling.”

In a press release dated February 27, 2006 the ARC also recognized its need to find “new and better ways to recruit and train volunteers that represent the communities served by the Red Cross.” In addition, in helping communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters it needs to redouble “efforts to develop partnerships, from faith-based and non-profit groups to city officials and the business community.”

Manny Mirabal, president of the National Puerto Rican Coalition feels the Red Cross still has not done much to reach out. “The Red Cross is unveiling a plan that they have to do better outreach to the Latino community this weekend in Florida. We have been meeting with them, [but] none of us know what that plan is. They haven’t given us the courtesy of even talking to us [about the plan].”

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. According to their literature, NCLR works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. Through its network of community-based organizations, NCLR reaches Hispanics in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.