They've launched a petition calling on the governor to promise that won't happen, and cited a promise the White House made not to urge authorities to "round up" evacuees at shelters as Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas last month. In that case, there were reports of undocumented immigrants avoiding shelters out of fear of deportation, which led officials in Miami-Dade County on Wednesday to assure undocumented evacuees there that they would not be subject to an immigration status check. Activists want to see a similar policy at the state level.
"Many people in Florida are fleeing their homes, terrified that they may not have a house to come back to. Rebuilding a life is serious work, and the last thing people need to be worried about on top of that is getting scrutinized by law enforcement or deported simply because they sought out safety," the petition reads.
It's unclear whether the White House will have a similar policy for Irma evacuees who may be undocumented, but the petition's creators are concerned that, given the Trump Administration's reversal of DACA earlier this week, they may be more callous than they were less than two weeks ago.
Undocumented immigrants typically face uncertain or even dangerous circumstances if they get deported back to the countries from which they came. If they avoid shelters out of fear of deportation, they may be doing so at their peril. So if authorities don't assure them they won't face deportation if they seek shelter, they face immense risk regardless of what they do.
As of shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday, the petition has gotten 6,196 of the 7,000 signatures for which it calls.
Undocumented immigrants aren't the only ones in Florida who may worry about the consequences of showing up to a hurricane shelter.
Earlier this week, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd tweeted that any evacuees attempting to access a shelter who happen to be subject to a warrant will be arrested. His tweet went viral, and groups like the ACLU of Florida compared Judd to controversial former Maricopa (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an open supporter of racial profiling and other questionable practices recently pardoned by President Trump despite a criminal contempt conviction.
This article appears in Sep 7-14, 2017.
