Leaders Say Aid Is too Slow
In Reaching Hispanic Evacuees
Alex Meneses Miyashita     [Photo]

As the search for victims of Hurricane Katrina continues, advocacy groups are expressing concern that many Hispanics, particularly undocumented immigrants, are not receiving enough help.

"This is the time to seek that assistance and to get it not having any fear of questions being asked about papers or documents," National Council of La Raza president Janet Murguía told Hispanic Link News Service after meeting with President Bush Sept. 5. "(Bush) reiterated that the important focus right now was to get assistance to families that need it and that no one should be afraid to ask for help."

In Houston, several undocumented Hispanic evacuees are shunning shelters and cramming into hotels, often sharing a single room with 10 or more people, Joe Rubio, Catholic Charities vice president for the region, told Hispanic Link. "We are encouraging them to go to the shelters, where they can receive medical and other services,” Rubio said, conceding that there remains a need for more Spanish speakers to serve evacuees at those centers.

Through its outreach efforts, Catholic Charities provides victims with gasoline, food vouchers, cash and other emergency services.

Other organizations, such as NCLR and the League of United Latin American Citizens, are urging Latino immigrants not to hesitate seeking assistance from federally designated relief agencies.

NCLR was the only Hispanic group among some 15 community and faith-based organizations, including the American Red Cross, which met with the President to discuss relief efforts and the administration's willingness to raise money to help several of the groups that are actively offering assistance.

Murguía said that the invited groups’ goal is to coordinate better with each other, as well as with the Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency. They will continue to meet and serve in an advisory capacity with the President, she said.

"The Red Cross has been overwhelmed, but we need to improve its ability to coordinate with organizations that want to be helpful, particularly organizations that are dealing with diverse communities," she stressed.

NCLR and its affiliates in Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas are working with the Honduran and Mexican embassies and consulates to coordinate assistance efforts. These will include raising money and providing food to evacuees, identifying homes for them and schooling opportunities for their children, and assisting FEMA and the Red Cross with translation services.

The Honduras Embassy estimates that as many as 150,000 residents in the New Orleans metropolitan area are Honduran. Political Affairs Minister Ramón Custodio told Hispanic Link the Honduran Consulate in Houston and the one in New Orleans, which has been moved temporarily to Baton Rouge, La., are still tracking those who have been affected.

So far, they have registered only a few hundred, he added.

The Mexican government estimates that as many as 145,000 Mexicans are residents of the areas affected by Katrina. About 10,000 lived in the city of New Orleans. The Mexican Foreign Affairs Ministry has confirmed the deaths of three Mexican nationals. Eighty others reportedly still have not been accounted for.

So far, temporary Mexican Consulates have opened in Baton Rouge and in Mobile, Ala., offering assistance to affected Mexicans, from providing calling cards to finding housing. The Mexican government has also sent military vessels, helicopters, trucks and relief brigades.

The U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is supplying more than 1,000 National Guardsmen and 60 State Emergency Management Agency technicians.

"Puerto Ricans have lived through similarly devastating hurricane experiences. We know the pain and anguish that our fellow citizens in the Gulf of Mexico are going through," Puerto Rico Secretary of State Fernando Bonilla said in a statement.

The Red Cross has opened shelters in 17 states.

On the legislative front, the U.S. House and Senate have approved $62.3 billion for relief efforts.

"This is the beginning of what will undoubtedly be a long and arduous task," Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-Texas) said.

Senate Democrats introduced the Katrina Emergency Relief Act, which allows survivors access to medical coverage, housing, education and financial help, on Sept. 8.

Sen. Mel Martínez (R-Fla.) introduced a bill that will waive any financial penalties assessed to hurricane-affected college students who have withdrawn from school.

His Democratic counterpart, Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), has called for the formation of a "Marshall-like" program, which would create a task force with state and local input that develops a reconstruction plan for the damaged areas.

"The basic function of the federal government is to respond to natural disasters such as Katrina which has devastated 90,000 square miles of America," Salazar said.

However, LULAC executive director Brent Wilkes told Hispanic Link that relief is not reaching many Hispanic immigrants yet, especially those in rural areas.

"Latinos in particular are in substantial more risk than other populations because the farm-working communities that were hit in the Gulf state area really have not got on the radar screen," he said.

Although LULAC is aiming some of its relief efforts in New Orleans, its main targets are elsewhere, including rural communities where many undocumented immigrants work.

"We're not trying to follow the Red Cross around. What we want to do is reach out to people who are being missed by the Red Cross right now," he said.

Wilkes said that although FEMA provides emergency assistance to all those in need regardless of their legal status, long-term assistance benefits, such as rebuilding dollars, are off-limits for undocumented immigrants.

"They're really the forgotten folks. They're the ones who are behind the scenes, doing all the work, but when it comes to rescues they tend to be left on their own," Wilkes said.

One report from Mississippi said hundreds of Hispanic workers have arrived in affected regions there to clean up the hurricane's destruction in buildings.

(Alex Meneses Miyashita is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service. Reach him by e-mail at alex@hispaniclink.org)

© 2005, Hispanic Link News Service
09/18/05
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