Bahamas residents are fleeing Dorian’s devastation. Here’s how the US has treated migrants escaping past disasters

It’s a wrenching scene that plays out every time a natural disaster strikes. Thousands of people are homeless and searching for refuge, and many of them end up on America’s doorstep.

The reality of the devastation Hurricane Dorian left behind when it pounded the Bahamas is becoming increasingly clear. But details of the US response to the disaster are still taking shape.

US rescue teams have been searching for survivors across the islands. And many Bahamas residents have fled to the United States since the storm hit.

But some Bahamians boarding a ferry boat for Florida over the weekend heard what critics called a cruel message: If you don’t have a valid visa, you have to turn back. US Customs and Border Protection officials said that announcement came because the ferry’s operator didn’t properly coordinate the evacuation with the US and Bahamian governments.

This much is clear: The situation on the ground in the Bahamas remains chaotic, and tens of thousands of people need help.

Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan tweeted Sunday that US Customs and Border Protection was “working to facilitate entry of evacuees” at US ports.

Here’s a look at how the US government has responded to migrants fleeing countries where disaster struck in recent years, and what could happen next.

Migrants from Haiti and El Salvador were protected in the US after disasters

In the past, the US government has stepped up the protections it offers migrants after natural disasters hit.

“If the government wants to help people to come for short stays as a reprieve, it certainly has the authority to do that,” said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute’s New York office.

Whether the US government will offer more protections for the Bahamas, where Dorian left an estimated 70,000 people homeless, remains to be seen, Chishti said.

“Fearing the numbers may be large and overwhelming,” he said, “they may choose not to do that.”

One example in recent memory shows one way the US could respond to this disaster. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010 killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced 1.5 million more. On January 21, 2010, nine days after the temblor struck, the US government designated Haiti for what’s known as temporary protected status, or TPS — allowing Haitians who’d been in the US since the quake hit to remain, given the “size of the destruction and humanitarian challenges” facing the country.

“That was a very quick reaction in recognition of what had happened in Haiti, and it did help a lot of people,” Chishti said.

Congress created TPS in 1990. It’s a form of humanitarian relief for people who would face extreme hardship if forced to return to homelands devastated by armed conflict or natural disasters. In the US more than 400,000 people from 10 countries currently have TPS, according to the Congressional Research Service, but the Trump administration has been trying to end these protections for many of them.

After a series of devastating earthquakes hit El Salvador in 2001, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft granted TPS to residents of the Central America country. And more recently, Nepal was designated for TPS in 2015 after an earthquake killed more than 8,000 people there. Officials also designated Honduras and Nicaragua for TPS in the late 1990s after Hurricane Mitch hit.

Since President Trump took office, his administration has tried to strip deportation protections from hundreds of thousands of people from these countries who were granted TPS. So far, courts have blocked those efforts. But the cases are still pending, and how long such protections will last is anything but certain.

For Bahamians, several options could be on the table

Chishti said the US government could be weighing a range of different options as the number of residents trying to leave the Bahamas grows. Among them:

• TPS – As it has with other countries in the past, the United States could designate the Bahamas for TPS. But Chishti notes there are limitations to such protections. TPS, he said, “applies only to people who are already in the United States.”

• Humanitarian parole – For people who aren’t already in the United States and are fleeing the storm’s devastation, but don’t have valid visas to enter the US, the Department of Homeland Security could encourage officers to grant what’s known as humanitarian parole, Chishti said.

“There would have to be a guidance issued by the DHS that we are authorizing issuing of a parole for this group of people and in these circumstances,” he said.

• Regional response – It’s possible the United States will argue it’s not the only country that should be responsible for helping displaced people in the Bahamas.

“The US could I think argue that this is not just the US’s responsibility,” Chishti said, “that this is a real disaster that requires a cohesive, regional response.”