When a large hurricane is approaching Centraal Florida this season, Maria knows that it is dangerous to stay in her wooden, trailer-like house. …
When a large hurricane is approaching Centraal Florida this season, Maria knows that it is dangerous to stay in her wooden, trailer-like house. In the past storms, she evacuated to her sister’s firmer house. If she couldn’t get there, a hiding place in the local high school served as a refuge if necessary.
But with accelerating detention and deportations of immigrants about her community of Apopka, 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Orlando, Maria, an agricultural worker from Mexico without permanent American legal status, does not know whether those options are safe. All risks that immigration enforcement agents encounter.
“They can go where they want,” said Maria, 50, who insisted that the Associated Press would not use her last name for fear of detention. “There is no limit.”
Natural disasters have long been taken Some risks For people in the United States without permanent legal status. But with The arrival of Peak Atlantic Hurricane Seasonimmigrants and their proponents say that President Donald Trump is robust Immigration -Enforcement agenda has increased the danger.
Places considered as neutral spaces by immigrants such as schools, hospitals and emergency management agencies are now suspicious, and proponents say that similarities from local law enforcement to Work together with American immigration and customs enforcement Make them more vulnerable and force a choice between being physically safe and avoiding detention.
“Am I going to risk the storm or run the risk of jeopardizing my family in the shelter?” said Dominique O’Connor, an organizer at the Farmworker Association of Florida. “You will meet enforcement anyway.”
For O’Connor and for many immigrants it is about storms. But people without permanent legal status can be confronted with these decisions wherever extreme heat, forest fires or other heavy weather are confronted, evacuate, getting stocks or even the search for medical care.
Federal and government agencies have said little about whether the enforcement of immigration in a disaster would be suspended. It would not make much difference to Maria: “With everything we have lived, we lost confidence.”
New policy deepens concern
The efforts of the Republican government of Trump to exponentially expand the enforcement capacity of immigration, mean that many of the agencies that are active in disaster response are increasingly entangled in enforcement of immigration.
Since January, hundreds of law enforcement agencies have signed 287 (G) Agreementsso that they can carry out certain enforcement actions for immigration. Most similarities are in hurricane -sensitive Florida and Texas.
The Emergency Management division of Florida supervises State Building the new detention facilitiespretend The one called “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades. Federal Funds for Emergency Management are used to build extra detention centers throughout the country, and the Ministry of Interior Security has temporarily re -assigned some FEMA employees to help ice.
The National Guard, often out of fainting of food and water after disasters, is activated Support for our customs and border protection activities And help in detention centers.
These double rolls can cause an intimidating scene during a disaster. After flooding in July, more than 2,100 employees of 20 government agencies helped the far-reaching response effort in Central Texas, together with CBP officers. The police mastered access to hard -affected areas. Texas Department of Public Safety and Private Security Officers Published Inputs to Emergency Recovery Centers Set up by FEMA.
That restless even families with permanent legal status, said Rae Cardenas, executive director of Doyle Community Center in Kerrville, Texas. Cardenas helped coordinate with the Mexican consulate in San Antonio to replace documents for people who lived behind police control posts.
“Some families are afraid to get their mail because their legal documents have been washed away,” said Cardenas.
In Florida, this policy cannot let people drive to control evacuation roads. Traffic stops are a frequent tool for detention and Florida adopted a law in February Access to the state of criminalization By those without legal status, although a judge temporarily blocked it.
There may now be fewer places to evacuate that public shelters, often monitored by the police or that ID, are no longer considered by DHS as ‘protected areas’. The Bureau in January A policy withdrawn from President Joe Biden, a Democrat, to prevent enforcement in places such as schools, medical facilities and emergency help locations.
The fears even extend to the recovery of need. In addition to meeting law enforcement in Fema Recovery Centers, households with mixed status that are eligible for help from the agency can hesitate to request fear of them information that is accessible by other agenciesSaid Esmeralda Ledezma, communication employee at the Houston-based non-profit Woori Juntos. “Even if you have the right to federal help, you are afraid to be punished,” said Ledezma.
DHS has issued messages in earlier emergency situations It would suspend the enforcement of immigration. The policy of the agency is now unclear.
DHS assistant -Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an e -mail that CBP had not given any guidelines “because there have been no natural disasters that influence the enforcement of the border.” She did not respond to what instructions were given during the activation of CBP in the floods of Texas or that ice would be active during a disaster.
The Emergency Management department of Florida did not respond to questions regarding its policy towards people without legal status. The Emergency Management division of Texas referred the Associated Press to the office of the Republican government Greg Abbott, which did not respond.
Building local resilience is a priority
Despite the performance, local officials in some hurricane -sensitive areas extend to the outreach to immigrant populations. “We try to continue with things as usual,” says Gracia Fernandez, coordinator of language access for Alachua County in Central Florida.
The province launched a program last year to translate and distribute emergency communication into Spanish, Haitian Creole and other languages. Now employees want to spread the word that the hiding places of the province do not require id’s, but because they are public spaces, Fernandez acknowledged that there is not much that they can do when ice comes.
“There is still a risk,” she said. “But we will do our best to help people feel safe.”
While immigrant communities are pushed deeper into the shade, more responsibility falls on non -profit organizations and communities themselves to keep each other safe.
Hope Community Center in APOPKA has encouraged the local officials to commit themselves that they do not need IDs on shelters and sand -pocket distribution points. During an evacuation, the facility becomes an alternative hiding place and a command center, from which staff members translate and send emergency communication into multiple languages. For those who do not leave their homes, employees do door-to-door wellness checks that deliver food and water.
“It is a very base, underground operation,” said Felipe Sousa Lazaballet, executive director of the center.
Preparing the community is a challenge when it is consumed by the daily crises caused by arrests and deportations, Sousa Lazaballet said.
“We are all in the triage mode,” he said. “Every day there is an emergency, so the community does not necessarily think of the hurricane season. That is why we must have a plan.”
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