Mennonite Central Committee

Immigrants find no safe haven after Katrina

October 3, 2005
Bethany Spicher Schonberg

Julio Galvez, a 33-year-old immigrant from Honduras, evacuated from his home in Metairie, La., before Hurricane Katrina struck. Galvez is a member of Iglesia Amor Viviente, a Metairie congregation that is part of Gulf States Mennonite Conference, and he traveled to Houston with friends and family from the church.

Galvez received a debit card at a nearby Red Cross service center, which was providing financial help to hurricane evacuees or others with homes damaged by the storm. Galvez is an undocumented immigrant, and he used an international driver's license from Honduras as his photo identification.

After trying unsuccessfully to activate his debit card, Galvez returned to the Red Cross, where they replaced the faulty card with a check. As he was leaving the center, however, a plain-clothes policeman stopped him. The officer looked at Galvez' ID and drove him to a police station where he was questioned, photographed and fingerprinted.

Detained overnight, Galvez said, "I realized in jail that I was not the only person who was suffering. There were others, too, who did not know why they were there."

Along with Galvez, a handful of undocumented evacuees across the country were detained, with at least three processed for deportation, despite early assurances — distributed in English and Spanish — by the Bush administration that all storm victims should seek help regardless of their immigration status.

The president, said Galvez, "was telling us that nothing would happen. We were trusting in him, and in God, when we went to get help. Now we realize you cannot have faith in the government."

Media reports of the detentions have left many immigrant evacuees, even legal immigrants, too frightened to seek hurricane aid. Some with green cards lost their documents in the disaster. Others with temporary visas lost their authorization when sponsors died or workplaces flooded.

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, more than 30,000 immigrants with temporary visas and almost 25,000 with green cards were affected by the hurricane, along with an unknown number of undocumented evacuees — mostly Mexicans, Hondurans and Vietnamese. Mexican officials estimate that 145,000 Mexicans in the United States may have been displaced by Katrina.

Immigrant advocates are calling on the Department of Homeland Security to direct its enforcement officers to refrain from detaining Katrina survivors. In addition, many are seeking temporary protected status for undocumented evacuees, similar to opportunities extended by the United States to Central American refugees after natural disasters and after Sept. 11, 2001.

So far, Congress has allocated $62.3 billion for hurricane relief, mostly for clean-up and reconstruction, with some funds earmarked for tax credits, welfare payments, unemployment insurance and loan forgiveness. Many more spending bills will be considered in the next weeks and months.

Legislation in response to Hurricane Katrina should grant lawful status and work authorization to hurricane survivors who are undocumented and those whose legal status depended on lost family members or workplaces. And temporary health, food, housing and welfare assistance for all victims, regardless of status, must be accompanied by assurances that seeking help will not result in deportation.

The post-Katrina plight of immigrants only magnifies the need for immigration reform that allows the U.S. undocumented population to live free from fear and provides safe, orderly ways for migrants to enter the country. More important are long-term investments in international development and changes in trade policy that would provide economic opportunities in migrants' home countries.

Galvez was released on bond just before Hurricane Rita forced him to evacuate again with other members of Amor Viviente, this time to San Antonio to be hosted by San Antonio Mennonite Church. He then returned to Metairie, where he managed a landscaping business and an apartment complex before the disaster. But Galvez' troubles are not over, as he has reportedly been ordered to return to Houston on Oct. 7 for an arraignment. The details of his legal situation are not clear, and Galvez says, "The only way to move ahead is just to depend on God."