NumbersUSA Urges Chertoff to Ensure Long-Term Katrina Relief Go to Citizens and Legal Immigrants

Scarce Resources Should not be Used to Help Illegal Aliens Resettle Unlawfully

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, NumbersUSA Executive Director Roy Beck sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff urging him to take measures to ensure that hurricane relief efforts are not inadvertently diverted from American citizens and legal immigrants and instead be used to assist illegal aliens to continue to unlawfully reside in the United States. 

The full text of the letter is available upon request. 

In addition, Beck urged that no jobs cleaning up or rebuilding the disaster areas should be allowed to go to illegal aliens.  He asked that an existing federal phone and internet screening system be used to ensure that only lawful U.S. residents get those jobs. 

“While illegal aliens deserve basic humanitarian care, they do not deserve assistance that aids them in resettling unlawfully in the United States,” wrote Beck.  “In addition to emergency shelter, medicine, and food, illegal aliens should receive help locating family members and securing transportation to their home countries.  Anything beyond meeting these basic needs would divert scarce resources from Americans and lawful residents and further undermine the rule of law.”

Hurricane Katrina cost thousands of citizens in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama their homes, their jobs, and their belongings.  Federal, state, and local governments and private organizations have stepped up to help them recover from this terrible loss.  However, given the scarce resources, it is important that aid and relief to Americans and lawful residents not be slowed down nor diverted to illegal aliens. 

Currently, individuals can be screened for eligibility for other forms of assistance through the Basic Pilot verification program, called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system.  This program can instantaneously confirm that someone is lawfully in the United States and is eligible for hurricane assistance.  Additionally, the Basic Pilot program can also be used to verify employment eligibility in order to ensure that desperately needed jobs do not go to illegal aliens, but to citizens and lawful residents. 

“Just as Booker T. Washington did, we strongly urge all American employers to ‘cast down your buckets where you are’ and to deliberately assist our fellow citizens in regaining their livelihoods and reassembling their lives,” wrote Beck.  “We urge you to make sure illegal aliens do not unnecessarily and unfairly benefit as a direct result of having broken our immigration laws.”  

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