The Southern Poverty Law Center urged the U.S. government Tuesday to suspend visa requirements for people in the Bahamas affected by Hurricane Dorian.

“At this very moment, thousands—if not tens of thousands of people—are trapped in the Bahamas on devastated islands,” said center Senior Supervising Attorney Paul Chavez, who works with the group’s Immigrant Justice Project. He issued a statement Tuesday urgently calling on the government to intervene.