undocumented in the midst of Ian’s disaster

to the already difficult situation that thousands of victims live after the devastating passage of Hurricane Ian through southwest Florida, joins the drama of hundreds of undocumented Hispanic immigrants who resist asking for help from the US government for fear of being deported.

“Your fear is greater than your need,” he assures the voice of america the Mexican Anahí Morales, one of the volunteers who for a week has been delivering door-to-door donations to those who “have lost their car and have no way to find the things that people give them.”

In Fort Myers, the tourist coastal town that received the worst of the powerful Hurricane Ian, lives a large Hispanic community, mostly from Mexico and Guatemala. Many of them do not have regular immigration status or a work permit. Others don’t even have an ID and live hand to mouth, working hard jobs for little pay.

“We are trying to help the community that cannot speak English and they are afraid. A few days ago we had contacted the Army and FEMA [la Agencia Federal para el Manejo de Emergencias] and we take them to the communities, but the Hispanic people are afraid. They see official cars and their fear weighs more. We want to make them understand that they do not come to take them away or ask them for a social security number, they come to help them, so that they are well, ”she lamented.

Morales and a group of Hispanic volunteers have toured the neighborhoods affected by the floods from the sea where the conditions are “very ugly.” The water covered the houses up to the roofs and destroyed the belongings of hundreds of families, which now accumulate in great piles of garbage in the streets as testimony to Ian’s fury.

The vast majority remain without power more than a week after the hurricane and rely on people to provide them with water, hot food, clothing and ice to preserve food. Many live in unsanitary conditions because they have nowhere else to go. Yet they are reluctant to ask government agencies for help.

“We always stay in the shadows when we should receive the same help as everyone else. We are all in this together”, insisted Morales, 25, who also lost his car in the floods and together with his two children “has not been able to take a shower in days”.

He also denounced the “injustices” suffered by the victims in neighborhoods with a Hispanic majority, where the owners of the houses are threatening them with eviction if they do not pay the rent. “Most of them lost their jobs and their belongings, they have no money, how are they going to pay,” he lamented.

In line to receive clothes and toiletries with her five and eight-year-old children, the Mexican María González confessed to the VOA who is one of those who does not fully trust the government and believes that if she registers for assistance from FEMA her data could be shared with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE for its acronym in English).

“You always have that fear. I found out that they were donating things here and I came with my children because we no longer have anything, our house was completely flooded. Here they tell me that they can help me and I think I’m going to do it, asking for help, ”he said while waiting for his turn in a parking lot where Morales and other activists were distributing donations.

Requesting assistance from the government is not so simple for an undocumented person. “You have to have at least a social security number,” explains Jessica Wood, a Latina who is organizing assistance through her nonprofit Drinks for Democracy.

“We need help in the area, especially from FEMA. Most of the people here are undocumented, so they can only apply using their children’s social. But when they try to do it online, they can’t. We need FEMA employees to authorize the application even if they don’t have documents. It’s the only way, with an employee. We are trying to convince people, ”she insisted.

Hispanic hands are the ones that are going to rebuild

Fort Myers Beach, the point where ian made landfall on September 28 as a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, it is ground zero of the disaster. The vast majority of the local Hispanic population worked there. The storm devastated the area and incidentally with the livelihood of thousands.

During his visit on Wednesday, President Joe Biden promised that the government would not leave “until the job is complete” and life in the community has returned to normal. In view of the magnitude of the disaster, this “return to life” will take time and will cost billions, according to official estimates.

María Ferrer Vélez, the owner of Paletería Carrucel, would have wanted Biden to tour not only the beach, but the neighborhoods “where people live.” Together with her daughter and her grandson, she cooks hot meals every day for those who “lost almost everything.” “They are my clients, I can’t abandon them,” she said.

According to this Mexican, most of the businesses lost in the hurricane “have insurance, apart from the fact that the government is going to help them. It is the people here, Hispanics, who need the help. The working people. There we are going to realize which hands are the ones that are going to pick up everything that fell: pure hands of Hispanic people, ”she warned.

“They do not want to give us licenses or a permit, other than to work, and that is what I would like with all my soul, for these words to touch up there and raise awareness. Let them hear that the people who are going to lift this collapsed are the Hispanic people, the ones who are always firm to work in whatever it is, because that is why we come to this country, ”he concluded.

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