Brett Marston, who apparently reads Spanish newspapers as well as German and English ones, reports that a FEMA official has said that a “Green Card” is a condition of receiving hurricane assistance.
I couldn’t find any reference to this episode in any other sources, but if it’s true either that FEMA is checking green cards before giving aid, or that an official has encouraged fears that this would be the case, that’s shameful.
Aside from logistical issues–some people might have lost their wallets in the flooding, everyone who “looks Mexican” isn’t a non-citizen and vice-versa, and so forth–I’m not sure what’s so shameful about it.
Documentation is a reasonable safeguard against abuse. One would presume that confirmation that one lived in an area damaged by the flooding and actually lost one’s property would be a precondition of receiving aid. Shameful though it may be, there are those who would not balk at taking a free handout intended for hurricane victims even though they aren’t themselves members of that group.
Similarly, it’s unclear to me what those who have violated our laws by entering the country illegally have any claim to our resources. Why should the taxpayers subsidize lawbreakers?
Obviously, medical aid should be rendered without document checks. But, surely, we should have some safeguards in place to ensure those to whom federal rebuilding grants are given actually merit them?
