HOW HE SEES IT Illegal immigrants deserve relief, too

By RAMON CASTELLBLANCH
KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE
While we saw on our televisions the sight of thousands of thirsty and hungry poor people suffering in New Orleans, still out of focus is the toll government callousness is taking on thousands of undocumented residents along the Gulf Coast.
They now face hunger and homelessness on top of the fear and insecurity of being undocumented. An estimated 150,000 Hondurans and 40,000 Mexicans lived in the New Orleans area before Katrina hit. Many were without papers.
The Department of Homeland Security says it will not assure undocumented workers and their families who seek help from relief agencies the protection from arrest and deportation.
This is inhumane.
Even after Sept. 11, the government gave protective status to undocumented residents so that they could receive the medical and humanitarian support they needed.
This time the government has heartlessly refused to offer such status. As a result, undocumented residents who were in Katrina's path are going without water, food, medical care and shelter.
Like other Katrina families, they, too, anguish over searching for lost children, relatives and friends. But if they go to the authorities to seek information about their loved ones, they risk getting deported and being sent even farther away.
Sweat and muscle
In the back of the New Orleans houses where tourists frolicked, undocumented workers provided sweat and muscle to make the city's attractions what they were. Unseen by most, they were cleaning floors, scrubbing toilets, washing dishes, fixing buildings and doing numerous other jobs to put a sparkle on the New Orleans the rest of us saw.
The issue here isn't whether undocumented immigrants should be here. They are here. We all need them, and they're not going away.
The real issue is how we treat workers like the Hondurans and Mexicans of New Orleans. Do we treat them like human beings or do we compound their hardships with more privation?
The government should at the least renew its policy of Sept. 11 and allow undocumented workers to seek hurricane relief with the assurance they will not be arrested.
We owe that much -- basic human decency -- to undocumented people.
X Ramon Castellblanch is assistant professor in the Health Education Department at San Francisco State University. He wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services