r/EmergencyManagement • u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 • 3d ago
ICE at disasters
Hey friends,
There’s been some growing concern in my world from shelter managers becoming concerned about the potential for ICE to show up at Hurricane/emergency shelters. There was a Biden administration directive that was supposed to prevent immigration raids etc from occurring during natural disasters. Our local leadership has expressed the idea that this shouldn’t be a problem.
But with yesterday’s arrests of wildland firefighters AT a wildfire in Washington, it appears that nowhere is safe anymore.
Be safe out there and look out for each other and especially those that we serve.
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u/WhimsicalRenegade 2d ago
Piggybacking to add that in a disaster the undocumented (or, hell, any immigrant these days) may stay in the shadows out of self preservation, but in doing so will also lose out on benefits to which they are entitled. This happened in the northern California fires in 2017. In the days after a massive fire storm as we began to organize resources, the immigrant community would not present for support that they were eligible for. As we realize this, it was terribly disheartening and we found ways to find out into the community with trusted interlocutors, but I always felt badly that even in such a crisis people were afraid to come forward because of being undocumented.