Post IKE: Will ICE Go After Undocumented who seek services?

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Undocumented workers fear asking for help after Ike
Many have lost everything but won't seek aid
By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Sept. 19, 2008, 10:57PM

GALVESTON — Elmer Martinez, 22, lost all his possessions in Hurricane Ike's storm surge. The restaurant where he worked is closed, and it may be weeks before he finds another job.

That would make him like many Galveston residents, except for one important distinction: He is one of several thousand illegal immigrants living in a post-storm limbo, afraid they will be discovered by the squads of law enforcement officers now patrolling the streets and guarding the causeway entrance.

Some of the undocumented immigrants are hesitant to leave the island, worrying they will not be allowed back. While they wait for work to resume, the financial assistance for housing and personal losses offered by government agencies is not available since they lack valid U.S. identity documents.

ICE reassurance
Many would like to remain and work on what will surely be an extensive rebuilding effort along the length of the storm-ravaged island beginning when residents return sometime next week. Hundreds, if not thousands of homes, restaurants and office buildings will have to be gutted, and new Sheetrock installed and plaster and paint applied.

''I don't have papers, and it will be hard to stay," said Martinez, who sends home much of his wages to support five younger siblings in Guatemala. ''Since the storm, with no papers, you remain in your house. You're afraid you'll be deported."

The fear of deportation is pervasive in the immigrant community in Galveston despite public assurances by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, and local and county officials, that no enforcement operations are under way.

''We're not enforcing any immigration laws in the city. We don't have time for that," said Galveston Police Chief Charles Wiley. ''As long as they're not violating other laws, we don't have the resources to enforce immigration laws."

County Judge James D. Yarbrough said officers are not inquiring about immigration status at the entrance to the causeway or other checkpoints in the city.

City officials do not know exactly how many illegal immigrants live in Galveston, a city of 58,000 residents where roughly a third of the population is Hispanic, said public information officer Alicia Cahill.

''We don't have an official number, but an estimate would be 2,000 or fewer," she said.

Galveston residents receiving food, water and ice at distribution centers are not required to show proof of residence or identity, she added.

On Friday, Martinez was helping Bogar Nava and his two sisters clean out their flooded home off 57th Street. Mold was already evident on the walls of the soaked wood-frame house. Only the sodden clothes, airing on the chain-link fence, seemed salvageable.

''We lost everything, absolutely everything," said Nava, a 38-year-old Mexico City native who followed his older sister to Galveston five years ago. ''What we're doing is trying to save the little we could find, but really, it's been nothing — just clothes.

None of the family members have work documents, but all have at least one or sometimes two or three jobs.

Avoiding FEMA
By mid-morning Friday, Nava had drained water from the engine of a green Dodge Neon and got it running. As he turned to work on two other flooded cars, landlord Paul Zendeh-del arrived with water and other supplies.

He embraced Nava's sisters, and told them his own house had been flooded.

''These are very good people, and they're hard-working — some work two or three jobs, and their kids go to school here," Zendeh-del said.

The landlord said many immigrants, even those here lawfully, are reluctant to ask for help from FEMA and other agencies.

''They get scared to go and ask for help because the National Guard is out there," Zendeh-del said.

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