Disaster relief groups worry immigrants won't go to hurricane shelters amid crackdown

Miami Herald

11 hours ago

With hurricane season underway amid a massive state and federal push for deportations, some disaster relief groups are worried that fear of immigration raids could keep foreign-born Floridians from hurricane shelters this year — even as a storm threatens their community.
The question popped up several times at a gathering last week hosted by the Miami Foundation to help nonprofits navigate sweeping changes to federal natural disaster management, including cuts to emergency funding and storm forecasting services.
During a panel discussion at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex, Allison Thompson, head of Miami-based Third Wave Volunteers, asked whether Miami-Dade County would allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into any hurricane shelters that may be opened this year.
'We are very worried about ICE,' she said. 'Because immigrants are scared to go to shelters as is.'
Jesse Spearo, assistant director of the county's emergency management department, told the crowd that shelters always have police officers there, but that law enforcement is only checking for weapons or drugs, which are prohibited. It's not county policy to check anyone's immigration status, he said.
'It's a concern that we have had conversations about within our communities,' he said. 'The shelters are always open for anybody. Doesn't matter who you are or where you're from. Doesn't matter, you're welcome.'
American Red Cross, which co-operates most disaster shelters in Florida, also repeated that it doesn't consider immigration status when evacuees arrive.
'Red Cross shelters are open to everyone. They are safe and welcoming spaces for people of all backgrounds,' Tiffany Gonzalez, spokesperson for the South Florida region, said in a statement.
For years, ICE has followed a formal policy that discouraged raids in protected places like schools, hospitals, churches and hurricane shelters. Under President Joe Biden, the federal government emphasized that to 'the fullest extent possible,' immigration officials would not conduct enforcement along hurricane shelters, evacuation routes, disaster assistance registration sites, or supply distribution centers.
'DHS is committed to ensuring that every individual who seeks shelter, aid, or other assistance as a result of a natural disaster or emergency event is able to do so regardless of their immigration status,' the Department of Homeland Security said ahead of Hurricane Milton last year.
But this hurricane season, there is new uncertainty surrounding that policy. In January, the Trump administration rescinded that protected places guidance, sparking widespread condemnation and lawsuits — including one from 27 religious groups.
'Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,' said a DHS spokesperson.
So far, there have been no confirmed cases of ICE raids on churches or schools, and without any early-season storms, no shelters have been opened in South Florida or elsewhere in the state. There are other hurdles to immigration agents targeting shelters as well. Experts told the Herald they believe that ICE agents would need a warrant from a judge before entering a church or school and that would likely apply to hurricane shelters as well.
READ MORE: Can ICE agents raid churches? Yes, but it's unlikely, say South Florida faith leaders, lawyers
The Miami Herald reached out to ICE with questions last week about how the agency would handle shelters during hurricane season. The agency did not respond.
Multiple law enforcement agencies in South Florida have also signed agreements with ICE to allow police officers to detain and arrest undocumented immigrants, including, most recently, the city of Miami. County jail operators, like Miami-Dade's Sheriff's Office, are required to join the partnerships with ICE by law. Miami-Dade, which provides security at many shelters, has also joined ICE's 'task force model,' meaning trained officers can question, arrest and detain people they believe are violating immigration law.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Department also did not respond to questions about shelters but Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz has previously stated that deputies will be focused on people who are committing crimes.
While there have been no recorded incidents of ICE raids at a hurricane shelter in Florida, there have been past threats to target the facilities by law enforcement. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd drew heat ahead of 2017's Hurricane Irma for threatening to snag anyone seeking shelter who had an active warrant out for their arrest. A Virginia legal services group later sued the sheriff, saying that his statement caused them to re-route undocumented immigrants they were planning to send to the shelter to wait out the storm.
Funding concerns
Beyond the immigration questions, nonprofit groups in Miami-Dade said they were largely ready for any disasters that this season could throw at them — but there are lingering concerns about relief and recovery funding.
The Trump administration has suggested dismantling the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the federal department tasked with responding to major disasters — but not until the end of hurricane season, which officially ends Nov. 30.
READ MORE: Florida says it's ready for hurricane season, with or without FEMA's help
FEMA provides the majority of disaster relief funding in the U.S., both for individual survivors of a disaster and for local governments seeking reimbursements for the work of cleaning up after a storm or flood or fire. Already, the agency has begun cutting back on the amount of disaster aid it offers communities, pushing some South Florida municipalities to consider starting a new fund to sock away extra money ahead of disasters.
Other nonprofit groups worried aloud that with diminished federal funding, they'd all be fighting over the same, smaller pot of private donations now.
But Katy Meagher, CEO of Miami-based Neighbors for Neighbors, told the crowd gathered at the Little Haiti Cultural Center on Wednesday that banding together was the key to ensuring that Miami disaster relief nonprofits could continue helping locals this year, despite shifts in federal funds.
'We never used a dime of federal funding from our day of inception to today. For many, I know that's a fearful thing to lose, but we don't need it,' she said. 'I believe in us because we work together so collaboratively already.'
In Miami-Dade, Spearo had good news to share about local disaster relief. The county's emergency management staff has nearly doubled in the last few years, thanks to recommendations from FEMA and the state that Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava took to heart, he said.
Leonie Hermantin, director of special projects at SantLa, said her group helped pull off the first-ever community disaster training in Creole, after decades of only English or Spanish-language options.
Hermantin said her organization also ran multiple focus groups to find out what the community knows about disaster relief and what resources they actually need, rather than simply assuming.
'It turns out a lot of people know what preparedness is, they just don't have the means,' she said. 'They can't go shopping for hurricane supplies. They're terrified of shelters. That's misinformation we need to correct.'
Elderly people, in particular, think of hurricane shelters as 'brothels, basically,' she said.
Other panelists, including Spearo, agreed that all research showed that the people most at risk when a disaster strikes are low-income people.
'I'm worried about our vulnerable population. The people that are hurting now, with $10 in the bank, with a medical condition, they are ten times worse off after a disaster. I worry about them,' he said.
Miami Herald Staff Writer Syra Ortiz Blanes contributed to this article.