Hurricanes and Immigrants
The government has gone back and forth on whether or not they will slow emergency evacuations by continuing identity checks or purposefully sweeping for immigrants during natural disasters.
larmed by reports that immigration authorities have detained immigrant evacuees in West Virginia and Texas, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) have called on Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff to suspend deportation proceedings against immigrants who approach the government for help in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The U.S. Border Patrol says it will check the immigration status of people trying to ride evacuation buses near the Texas-Mexico border in future hurricane emergencies. Those evacuees thought to be in the U.S. illegally will be sent to detention facilities. Human rights advocates protest that people with illegal aliens in their families will not evacuate because they will not want to leave relatives behind.
What will the Border Patrol do in event of an evacuation in Texas or elsewhere with regards to identity checkpoints?
Ending years of speculation about the fate of the Rio Grande Valley's unauthorized immigrants during a hurricane evacuation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has confirmed it will check the citizenship of people boarding buses to leave the Valley and arriving at inland traffic checkpoints.
