Hurricane's impact worst for undocumented immigrants 

Monday, August 23, 2004 at 03:11PM
TheSpook

While American citizens receive extensive emergency assistance, Spanish-speaking migrant workers face additional challenges coping with the destruction of Florida's Hurricane Charley. Most of the workers are not US citizens and therefore do not qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) money to rebuild their homes, pay rent or repair damaged appliances. Also, few of the initial disaster relief workers spoke Spanish, making it impossible to explain even the most basic services available to both citizens and non-citizens, like free food and water. FEMA has said it recently corrected the problem by sending about 200 Spanish-speaking specialists into Hispanic neighborhoods. [more ]

Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).