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The Invisible Victims of Katrina
There are thousands of them. They worked in restaurants, washing dishes. They cooked, baby-sat and mowed lawns. They helped build houses and cleaned casinos. They lived in homes, paid taxes, contributed to the economy. Millions of people have benefited from their work, yet no one acknowledges their existence. They are nameless faces who -- just like hundreds of thousands of others in the Gulf Coast -- lost everything they had to the rabid winds of Hurricane Katrina. They are victims of the storm, but because they don't exist in the eyes of federal authorities, they will not be treated as such. Because they are undocumented immigrants, they are invisible. When the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it would help all the victims of Katrina, it did not really mean "all." When asked over and over again by Spanish-language journalists whether or not undocumented immigrants would be excluded from aid, time and time again FEMA's representatives said the aid is for "all" of the victims. But we later learned how relative the terms "aid" and "all" can be. The confusion about exactly what FEMA is doing to help undocumented victims had been such that the agency put out a document explaining what, if anything, they qualify for. The questions and answers went something like this: If I am undocumented, am I eligible for assistance for needs related to the recent storms, tornadoes and flooding? The answer was: Yes, you may be eligible under different programs run by state and local agencies and voluntary agencies. It doesn't sound like a trick question, but it is a trick answer. What FEMA is basically saying is: No, you don't qualify for federal aid. The only thing that undocumented victims of Hurricane Katrina are eligible for is non-cash, short-term emergency aid, crisis counseling or disaster legal services, which might come in handy if their immigration status is detected. FEMA's financial aid is reserved exclusively for U.S. citizens, noncitizen nationals or qualified aliens. A qualified alien, in the government's book, is a green-card holder or someone who has legal status because of asylum, parole, domestic violence or whose deportation proceedings have been suspended. Undocumented immigrants who have children born in the United States can ask for assistance on behalf of their kids as long as they live with them and they can provide the children's Social Security numbers. Not such an unreasonable request, if it wasn't for the fact that many of Katrina's victims lost not just their homes, but also most of their belongings, including documents that attest to their existence. Luckily, there are those who see these invisible victims as human beings, regardless of their immigration status. There are some organizations and individuals who put need ahead of bureaucracy, and compassion ahead of politics: the Red Cross; churches and different religious groups; the governments of their countries of origin through the consular offices; Hispanic civic groups; and Latin entertainment stars. Undocumented victims of Hurricane Katrina seem to have no option but to go back to the underworld they lived in before the storm. They will find new places to live and will get jobs again -- this time, working in the cleanup efforts in the disaster area, and helping in the reconstruction of the cities that were destroyed. Then they will again become invisible, doing work that millions will benefit from, and still very few will acknowledge their existence.
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María Elena Salinas is anchor of Noticiero Univisión. |
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