JACL, APA Groups Reach Out to Hurricane Victims
Many lack the skill and resources to navigate through federal bureaucracy. Community leaders are offering free legal help in April.
For many Gulf Coast Asian Pacific Americans, “home” is a small space on the floor of a Buddhist Temple, a parked car or simply a pillow and blanket next to mountains of debris. Six months after hurricanes swallowed their world, the APA community is still struggling to get back on its feet.
Like other affected communities, they are having trouble accessing federal support, but language barriers and cultural reticence further hamper their plight. For too many, just filling out forms is impossible.
Help, as it usually does, is coming from within the community.
APA lawyers and groups including the JACL will be offering free legal assistance to help victims navigate through the bureaucracy and understand their due process rights. The first Legal Community Education Clinic is slated for April 1-4 at the Hong Kong Mall in New Orleans.
“There was a sense of outrage and frustration over the inequity,” said Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) Staff Attorney Juliet K. Choi about the region’s APA community. Since disaster struck, she has been dedicated to the recovery efforts traveling to the devastated regions and talking to victims. The same comments became a refrain in a universal cry for help — many received rejection letters or low payout amounts for disaster assistance from federal agencies and insurance companies. They did not know they could appeal those decisions.
The fishing community, many who are of Vietnamese and Cambodian descent, have always lived in relative isolation in Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish and did not know federal assistance existed. Business owners who felt they fared better than the fishermen discovered they were losing out on assistance.
In the Vietnamese Catholic community many generally feel grateful for what they have, mostly because they have experienced worse. They say they came with “just two hands at least twice” from North to South Vietnam and then to the United States with only the clothes on their backs, said Choi.
Current images of the devastation speak loudly of the victims’ makeshift lifestyles, but in one of her many trips to the affected areas, Choi has seen fishermen fix their broken boats all day and sleep next to them at night. At the Bo De Buddhist Temple in Orleans Parish, families with small children forced others to sleep in cars.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Choi, who then walked through the parking lot. “There he was, the 81-year-old fisherman wrapped up in blankets and sleeping in an SUV …”
“What the affected APA communities lack is any broad community and political strength. They have churches and some community leaders, but do not have the experience to approach the right agencies,” said Floyd Mori, JACL director of public policy, who has visited the region along with Choi and representatives from other APA organizations.
“I was amazed at the positive attitude of these people who have lost everything. These people are very strong and have a will to get by and to work to rise above where they were when Katrina hit,” said Mori who likens the hurricane victims’ plight to that of World War II internees who left everything to go to camps. “We can help and will help them the best we can.”
To fill in where federal assistance falls off, officials from the Legal Community Education Clinics are expecting six APA bilingual out-of-state attorneys, some regional attorneys and law students to work pro bono in April. Language assistance will be provided in Vietnamese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese and possibly Cambodian. At least 200 people are expected to attend, but in the APA community where information travels rapidly by word of mouth, the number could spike.
“We hope to see some tangible help as a result of this clinic and that this will be the first of more to come,” added Mori.
Other organizations involved are: National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum, Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations and National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse.
“I grew up in New Orleans in the Vietnamese community there. I am trying to do some outreach for this project because the community needs all sorts of help as I know the interests and rights of the Vietnamese and other new communities in New Orleans often get lost in the Black-White paradigm of the South; they are invisible in their own way down there,” said Steve Ngo of the law offices of Minami, Lew & Tamaki.
The region’s racial paradigm is one of the many obstacles that APAs come up against. Last October, Choi pointed out there was more mainstream news coverage on the plights of pets in the affected areas than APAs.
“I was pulling out my hair,” she said. “I’m an animal lover … but at the same time, come on now!”
Timing is also crucial — the deadline to file for federal assistance was Mar. 11 and AAJC had been asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for an extension or an exception for victims identified after the deadline because of language and cultural barriers. At press time, some victims’ advocates have heard that a 30-day extension is being granted, but FEMA has not officially responded to the request.
“Unless we’re individually searching boat to boat … it’s impossible to find every single person,” said Choi.
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