We are outraged and horrified by the Administration’s failure to provide adequate aid to Puerto Rico, where Advocates for Youth has strong ties through our staff, our young people, and our work. This Administration’s failure at recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Maria is not just a dereliction of duty, but is a crime against human rights.

People on the island face increasingly dire circumstances, without power, without water, without gasoline, and with increasing food shortages. People have died, and more continue to suffer, as the President insults and ignores Puerto Ricans desperate for help.

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Puerto Rico is a United States territory and its safety is the responsibility of the United States.  Its people, and those of the also-devastated Dominica and Barbuda, are our fellow humans. We cannot and must not disregard their suffering. We cannot let them become victims of our President’s agenda of causing harm to the vulnerable.

This Administration should be pulling out all the stops to get help to the people of Puerto Rico and other islands. It should face this problem not in terms of what is politically expedient but what is morally imperative. Get help to Puerto Rico now, Mr. President. Do the right thing – for once.