In the present world, it is no longer possible to talk of purely natural disasters. On every level, disasters are always social. This is especially clear in terms of the effects they have on the different people caught in their midst.

Hurricane Katrina made this so clear that even pundits in the service of the ruling regime had to speak of "class war" in reference to its aftermath. The state's priorities were obvious from the beginning: the restoration of order and the reestablishment of functioning capitalist relationships as quickly as possible. These priorities moved the state to act openly against the various self-organized actions people were taking to meet their own needs in an emergency situation, to such an extent that state activity interfered with its own proclaimed end of aiding those caught in the storm.

The stories of the ways that people organized their own activity are quite worthy of examination. Though remaining on the level of survival, due to the state's interference, these activities were an expression of social war. Out of necessity, the poor people of New Orleans and the surrounding area had to attack the institutions of property and of the state in order to meet their needs. There was no way to hide the fact that these institutions stood in the way of real human need.

But this is not the story I want to tell here. The region struck by the hurricane (southern Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana in the United States) has a significant immigrant population. Many of these immigrants do not have documents. Since they are at the bottom of the social hierarchy, this disaster struck them even more harshly than the rest of the region's poor.   

It is estimated that there were about 300,000 immigrants living in the region struck by Katrina (though the official number is closer to 150,000, showing how many are undocumented). These included a large number of Hondurans (about 120,000 many of whom were refugees from Hurricane Mitch which tore through Honduras in 1998), other Latin Americans, Bangladeshis, Vietnamese and others. They face specific problems that those that the state recognizes as citizens do not.

In a CRS Report for Congress (Order Code RL33091), we find a bureaucratic assessment of some of these problems in a language devoid of humanity. Despite this language, one can learn a few things by reading this report. Many immigrants who had their papers in good order lost them in the storm and have nothing to prove their status. In addition, many immigrants are only allowed in the country because they have a job or a place in a university here or relatives who already live here and are capable of supporting them. The damage that Katrina caused has closed down many workplaces and schools, so that these immigrants are likely to have their status reassessed. And many of their supporting relatives are now themselves in need. Thus, many immigrants who had their documents in order now face the loss of their status, with the threat of deportation. In addition, the undocumented and those who lost their papers in the storm rightly fear asking for aid. The bureaucrats list all of these problems, and then go on to speak in the terms one would expect, asking what is necessary to reestablish and maintain control while promoting a quick return to normality, and basing any policy of aid to immigrants on this priority.

The United States government public relations apparatus has tried to present a humanitarian face, but the reality has been obvious from the beginning. While Bush and other people in the government told immigrants that they could feel safe applying for aid regardless of their immigration status, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was unwilling to promise not to deport those without documents who applied for disaster relief. And yet the US government apparently promised several Latin American governments that immigrants from their countries had nothing to fear regardless of their status. By September 28, this promise had been proven to be a lie, after five immigrants who had applied for aid found themselves facing deportation proceedings. As expected no one in the administration was willing to take responsibility for this lie.

Although the DHS was unwilling to make any promises to undocumented immigrants, it proved its compassion for the rich glowingly. Aware that employers in the region would be looking for cheap labor, particularly for the rebuilding of New Orleans (most likely as a kind of Cajun Disney World in which there will be no place left for the poor), it has temporarily suspended sanctions against employers that hire workers who don't have documents proving their immigration status. So while every immigrant who lacks documents whether because they never got them or because they lost them in the hurricane will have to continue to live in fear of being detained and deported, but employers will have even easier access to cheap labor, guaranteeing the quick reestablishment of fully operational capitalist relationships in the region.

The treatment of immigrants in this situation has, of course, become another cause for reformist moral crusaders in the United States to latch on to, lamenting the injustices of the government response to the situation. But this response is not an injustice from the standpoint of the ruling order. It is the only response we could expect from the rulers of this world. Their top priorities were to reestablish their control and to guarantee the healthy revival of capitalist relationships in the region. Their actions with regards to immigrants in the region were aimed precisely toward these ends. Non-immigrant poor and exploited managed to find ways to fight to meet their own needs in the situation, temporarily overcoming the usually one-sided nature of the social war in the US, but I have found no evidence that the wall between non-immigrant and immigrant, documented and undocumented poor and exploited people was breached in this situation. Particularly in light of the recent uprisings in France, we need to put every effort into overcoming this division along with all the others that the rulers of this world impose on us. This is an essential part of learning how to take advantage of the unexpected ruptures that can open the door to social upheaval. And in a world where anything can happen, those of us who want to overturn this world need to be prepared to seize these opportunities.