Language, lack of money and fear are a matter of life and death as Milton approaches Florida

MIAMI (AP) — Hurricane Milton It is expected to exert its greatest force over hundreds of thousands of immigrants, most of whom do not speak English Latin Americans Harvesting oranges and tomatoes in the fields Florida I-4 corridor, restaurant dishwashing, hotel room cleaning and construction work.

For Spanish speakers and a smaller number of African refugees , A new life in the US was already a daily struggle due to the language barrier and lack of resources.

Milton made these obstacles a matter of life and death.

Migrants in the eye of the storm

According to the Pew Research Center, at least 4.8 million immigrants live in Florida. After Miami, Orlando and Tampa are the metropolitan areas with the highest number of immigrants, most of them from Latin American countries such as Mexico and Venezuela.

In Central Florida, most migrants work in hospitality, construction and picking strawberries, berries, tomatoes and oranges. Many newcomers don't have access to television, computers or Internet access and don't know where to find information about Milton, a powerful storm that prompted state and local authorities to order the evacuation of areas where most of these immigrants live.

About 250,000 Mexicans live in the area where Hurricane Milton would hit hard, and many fear leaving their trailers or being deported.

“There is resistance to going to a shelter,” said Juan Sabines Guerrero, Consul General of Mexico in Orlando.

“There is no time to think about it,” he urged his fellow Floridians. “You have to do it.”

Sabines said local authorities have assured consular officials “that they will not ask about immigration status.”

Fighting the fear of deportation to save lives

Guerrero and his staff have conducted several interviews with Spanish-language radio stations in the area and shared an interactive map of shelters in the area on social media platforms. They also have WhatsApp channels and an emergency hotline that you can call.

Immigration advocates and consular officials have responded to the cities of Tampa, Orlando and Central Florida to help with evacuation plans and otherwise prepare. They exchange information in Spanish, French and African languages, make phone calls, send text messages and share social media posts with information about emergency shelters, evacuations and locations to pick up sandbags, food, water, emergency shelter and gasoline.

“In emergency situations like a hurricane, it is not easy to find information in Spanish,” said Jessica Ramirez, general coordinator of the Farmworker Association, which serves more than 10,000 immigrants.

Nongovernmental organizations such as the Farmworker Association of Florida, the Florida Immigrant Coalition and the Hope CommUnity Center have translated information from state and local authorities and shared it in Spanish through WhatsApp groups, Facebook and social media channels.

Like other organizations serving low-income Latino families in the area, they have received hundreds of calls from Spanish-speaking immigrants who can't find information in their language and don't understand English, asking for details about the storm.

A Mexican mother with a son who needs a ventilator

Lupita Lara lives with her family near Orlando and has a 23-year-old son with special needs who requires a ventilator to sleep every night. She tried to submit an online application to request a place in an emergency shelter, but experienced technical difficulties and after three hours decided to call the Farmworker Association.

“I needed their help,” said Lara, 47, who came from Mexico, speaks primarily Spanish and needed an English speaker to call the shelter office. “They don’t have people speaking Spanish when we call,” she said, speaking of some offices in Orange County.

A Farmworker Association attorney made a three-way call and helped translate the conversation. The shelter's office confirmed receipt of her request but told her she was not guaranteed a spot, Lara said. She now has to go to one of the animal shelters and see if there is room there.

“The problem is that people are afraid to call the authorities, so they call us,” said Felipe Souza-Lazaballet, executive director of the Hope CommUnity Center. “That’s why we basically coordinate all of this information.”

Advocates told the AP that they see a lack of economic resources to buy food, water or supplies, as well as fear among the undocumented population, as other challenges.

State policies are fueling fears that endanger the lives of migrants

In 2023, Florida passed one of the strictest immigration laws in the country. It criminalized entry into the state for people without permanent residency status, invalidated any U.S. government identification cards they may have had, and prevented local governments from issuing them identification cards. Florida hospitals that receive Medicaid must ask their patients about immigration status, and companies with 25 or more employees must verify the legal status of their workers.

Some advocates told The Associated Press on Wednesday that immigrants feared they would be deported if they went to a shelter. They have the same fear when they demand food or sandbags to protect their homes, even when authorities and those same advocates say they won't ask for ID.

They also fear that if they are evacuated and moved to another state, they will not be able to return because Florida law imposes penalties for transporting immigrants without legal authorization.

“There is a great fear of deportation or worse that people live with every day, so these fears become even more pronounced in times of disaster when vulnerability increases,” said Dominique O'Connor, climate justice organizer at the Farmworker Association of Florida.

O'Connor said that some shelters and sites that provide sandbags require identification and that some well-meaning military personnel or police officers hand out water, which is “very intimidating” for immigrants.