Last Monday, as Hurricane Beryl pummeled Houston with wind and rain, Cesar Espinosa heeded officials’ warnings and sheltered in place at home. But by Tuesday, the executive director of immigrant rights organization FIEL Houston was anxious to get out and check on the organization’s members. 

He just had to make one stop first. 

Espinosa pulled up to the FIEL offices around 9 a.m. on Tuesday with his sister Aura, who leads FIEL’s legal services, and two other staff members. A busted window was the first bad omen. Next was the puddle outside the office door.

On the other side, torrential rain had flooded the office, soaking through the ceiling panels that now lay as mush on the floor. When the window blew out, files and supplies toppled off shelves and whipped around the room.

Espinosa quickly identified the culprits. A bullet hole in the window from a shooting two months ago had weakened the glass. The ceiling had already been leaking during lighter rains. The owner hadn’t fixed either before the hurricane hit. 

Going to help Houston’s immigrants would have to wait. Espinosa had his own disaster to handle.

‘Our turn to get hit’

About 2.2 million CenterPoint customers lost power in Houston after Hurricane Beryl made landfall on July 8, and many still wait for power to return. At least 10 people died from fallen trees, deadly floodwaters and a lightning-provoked fire. 

As a pillar of the immigrant rights community, Espinosa is usually among the first to spring to action during Houston’s hurricane season — or any other emergency. But the widespread damage across the city has meant that some community organizations are dealing with their own post-hurricane cleanups. And that means other vulnerable Houston residents have to wait.

“If we weren’t cleaning up here today, we would be doing this but in people’s houses where we’re needed,” Espinosa said Wednesday at the FIEL headquarters.

“We’re usually out there helping,” Aura said. “This time it was our turn to get hit.”

The waterlogged office is where FIEL’s legal services team helps Houston’s immigrants fill out paperwork for citizenship, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals applicants, or other immigration relief. Espinosa was there Wednesday in a safety vest and N-95 mask with about a dozen FIEL staff and volunteers. They raked the debris, their boots squishing on the wet carpet. 

The group took stock of the damage and decided what could be salvaged. File cabinets and plastic chairs? Keep. Soaked papers and water-damaged desks? Toss.

The black file cabinets lining the wall seemed to have withstood the storm. Inside was the documentation of the thousands of people FIEL had helped adjust their immigration status, apply or renew DACA, or become U.S. citizens. 

It was too soon to do a full survey of the damage to the paperwork, but Espinosa thanked his foresight years ago to back up most important documents in the cloud. Hopefully not all was lost.

A group cleanup

In the meantime, FIEL’s staff and volunteers turned out to help. 

Teacher Ron Castro heard about FIEL’s office troubles from a former student. 

“It was Luis who called me, and he has DACA because of Cesar,” Castro said. 

Castro jumped on the chance to help out the person who has always helped his students. 

“Cesar’s always there,” Castro said. “If you need help, go see Cesar.”

Erika Alvarez spent her first day as an intern with FIEL’s legal office cleaning up. She quickly learned the first and only rule of working at FIEL: Be prepared for anything. 

“They do really important work for the community,” said Alvarez, a 21-year-old political science student at Rice University who is considering becoming a lawyer. “I’m hoping for the best and that the work we do here today helps them open up a little bit quicker.”

Aura Espinosa, FIEL’s legal services director and Cesar’s sister, was at the office assessing the damage and cleaning up Wednesday. By 11 a.m., the Houston heat was climbing into the 90s. Without her usual office, Espinosa turned a table and tent outside into a makeshift legal intake center. 

Two immigrants from Mexico were the only people that day who had decided against rescheduling their appointments because of the storm. Aura didn’t want to turn them away.

So she took down their information and took photos of their documents, just as she normally would. But it was hotter than the usual air conditioned office, and the process was longer without a scanner.

“We’re trying to get back as soon as possible,” Aura said. “I know that a lot of people are counting on us. At this point we’re counting on them to be a little bit patient with us.”

The work never stops

Calls to FIEL haven’t stopped coming in, thanks to a call operating service outside of Houston that wasn’t impacted by the weather. 

But with its hands full, the organization hasn’t been able to respond as quickly as it normally would. 

One case stuck in Cesar’s mind. An apartment building had been hit hard, and the landlord didn’t want to make the necessary repairs.

It only made the cleanup more urgent. Once he was done, he already had a to-do list, with a self-imposed end-of-the-day deadline.

“We’re gonna have to call them back and see what we can do for them,” Cesar said. 

Republish This Story

Republish our articles for free, online or in print.