Immigrants struggle and attempt to cope in Sandy’s aftermath

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Superstorm Sandy plunged some immigrants living illegally in the U.S. into darkness and even deeper into the shadows.

Some of those who need help to get temporary housing and food are afraid to come forward because they risk deportation. And many have returned to damaged, powerless, moldy homes because they have no other place to stay.

“My son has asthma and now he is worse. The house has this smell of humidity and sea water,” Mexican immigrant Miguel Alarcon Morales said while holding his 2-year-old son, Josias. “It is not safe to live there. I am starting to feel sick, too.”

Advocates are stepping up their efforts to get help to immigrants in hard-hit areas, in some cases going door to door.

“If you are here illegally and you are at your home and see the National Guard and people in military uniform, going up and down, sure, you are going to be afraid,” said Gonzalo Mercado, executive director of El Centro del Inmigrante, a nonprofit that helps day laborers and their families in Staten Island.

“To not be informed means to be afraid. That is why we are here, to inform immigrants of resources available to them,” Mercado added.

The New York City area is home to more than 2.3 million Hispanics, according to census numbers, and some places hardest hit by the storm are known as landing spots for Mexican immigrants. Nonprofits that work in the area calculate at least 20,000 Mexicans in hard-hit Staten Island.

Officials from the Mexican government have visited shelters in New York and New Jersey looking for immigrants to help, informing them on how to obtain food stamps, financial assistance from FEMA or the Mexican government.