Legal aid group sues FEMA

A legal aid group has sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency over access to disaster assistance centers in Starr County and elsewhere.

Attorneys and others from Texas RioGrandeLegal Aid were turned away from the FEMA “disaster recovery center” at the Roma Community Center on July 26, according to TRLA staffers.

Where previously TRLA has set up tables in disaster centers and offered free legal advice to victims, they are now exiled to adjacent parking lots and offices, according to the lawsuit, which alleges that FEMA kicked them out in retaliation for suing the federal agency over benefits for Katrina victims.

“They told us that they couldn’t give us a reason,” said Patty Villarreal, a San Antonio-based paralegal who was turned away from the Roma center. “They wouldn’t tell us why. We were asked to leave the premises.”

County Commissioner Raul Peña offered TRLA lawyers space in his office in Roma, but none of the 170 people who visited the FEMA center presented themselves for help at the nearby office.

It has been the same in other flood-stricken Texas counties since mid-July, Villarreal said.

Where FEMA had maintained a cordial working relationship with the attorneys, they say they are now getting the cold shoulder.

Before, according to affidavits filed with the court, FEMA staffers would personally escort clients over to TRLA tables for help with specific problems, an informal referral system.

A judge in Austin will likely consider a temporary motion todayto allow TRLA back into the centers until a larger lawsuit is resolved, said TRLA attorney Jerome Wesevich.

A FEMA spokeswoman said the agency does not comment on litigation, but referred to a news release touting FEMA’s agreement with the American Bar Association.

ABA’s young attorneys division has contracted with FEMA to provide legal services to disaster victims since 1993.

That agreement, cited in TRLA’s lawsuit, prevents volunteer ABA attorneys from advising clients to sue FEMA or any other government agency.

TRLA, which is partially funded through a grant from the federal government, can sometimes be adversarial with FEMA in advocating for clients, according to TRLA Executive Director David Hall.

In addition to helping with landlord, insurance and property disputes, TRLA attorneys help applicants appeal decisions by FEMA workers, often right on the spot at disaster centers.

“Such prompt appeals promote efficiency and accuracy,” Hall wrote in a letter to FEMA in July.

Over the two weeks the federal agency was set up in Starr County, 379 people visited the centers in Roma and Rio Grande City, according to FEMA spokeswoman Kati Corsaut.

Overall, 930 Starr residents registered with the agency for assistance following June and July’s heavy storms.

Around $1.3 million has already been paid to those victims for housing and other needs, she said.

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Sara Perkins covers western Hidalgo County, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472.