While the worst of Hurricane Florence is over, officials say the most dangerous flooding is yet to come for residents of the Carolinas and Virginia, as thousands have been ordered to evacuate their homes and hundreds more have sought rescue from rising floodwaters. But undocumented immigrants have expressed concern they will encounter immigration enforcement if they seek help. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has reallocated nearly $10 million from FEMA’s budget to ICE to pay for detention space and deportations. We speak with Laura Garduño Garcia, a DACA recipient and Greensboro-based organizer with Siembra NC and the American Friends Service Committee; and with Mary Small, policy director for Detention Watch Network.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman with Juan González.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The death toll from Hurricane Florence has reached 32 as rivers in the Carolinas continue to rise from the record-breaking storm. While the worst of the hurricane is over, officials say the most dangerous flooding is yet to come for residents of the Carolinas and Virginia, where around half a million homes remain without power. Thousands of residents have been ordered to evacuate their homes and hundreds more have sought rescue from rising floodwaters.
This includes undocumented immigrants in the region who have expressed concern they will encounter immigration enforcement if they seek help. A mother in the coastal city of Wilmington, North Carolina, which is cut off from the rest of the state by floodwaters, told NBC News she feared being separated from her children by ICE if they evacuated to a shelter.
UNKNOWN: My smallest daughter, the little one, asked me, “Mom, I am very afraid that our home is going to be destroyed and I don’t want to go to a shelter because I don’t want to be separated from you. I would rather die first than be separated from you.”
JUAN GONZÁLEZ:…