Protesters seek clarification on hurricane evacuation policies

EDINBURG — Community activists renewed their call Monday for federal officials to close South Texas' immigration checkpoints in the event of a mandatory hurricane evacuation.

Checking the legal status of every evacuee would discourage people from leaving in advance of a storm and slow down the overall process for others, the migrant rights advocates said protesting on the first day of the 2009 hurricane season.

"We think this could cause a tragedy of enormous proportions," said Corinna Spencer-Scheurich, an attorney with the South Texas Civil Rights Project. "We have been working to get a clear and safe answer to the government's policies on hurricane evacuation."

Carrying signs that read "We don't need a Katrina in the Valley," demonstrators from La Union del Pueblo Entero, Proyecto Azteca and other groups paraded outside of the U.S. Border Patrol regional headquarters in Edinburg for nearly an hour Monday but received no official response from the agency.

That quiet echoed the federal government's reaction last year when a mock evacuation drill spawned a panic among many immigrants and their family members.

During the drill, Border Patrol agents were observed asking the fake evacuees for proof of citizenship or legal residency, causing some to fear they would be detained or even deported should they try to flee north.

Although the agency's local spokesman said at the time that checkpoints would remain open and that it would be "business as usual" for agents in the field, officials in Washington, D.C. later appeared to soften their tone.

Still, the federal government has yet to outline a clear policy, leaving a dangerous impression in the minds of many immigrants and their families, Spencer-Scheurich said Monday.

"Nothing has happened to assure the people of South Texas," she wrote in a letter sent to Homleand Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last month. "Fear and confusion about the potentially dangerous choices still remain."

Hurricane Dolly — the Category 1 storm that swept through the Valley in July — was not severe enough to prompt calls for a mandatory evacuation.

But Homeland Security officials did assure southern Louisiana residents in September that immigration checks would be halted during evacuations in advance of Hurricane Gustav, according to documents obtained from the department's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

Monday's protestors called on department head Janet Napolitano to outline a similar policy for South Texas before another storm threatens the Rio Grande Valley.

"What's going to happen at checkpoints? And what's going to happen when they're boarding buses?" said Martha Sanchez, a community organizer for LUPE. "We cannot help (evacuees) if we don't know exactly what's going to happen. We need the federal government to be clear on what its role will be."

Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.