http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/ts_mor ... 0_10_0_M36

Evacuation may not be so easy
Homeland Security spokesman refutes Texas hurricane claim

BY ELIZABETH PIERSON
The Brownsville Herald

AUSTIN — A federal official said the U.S. government never agreed to let undocumented immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley flee north through a checkpoint if a hurricane were approaching Brownsville, despite assurances to the contrary from the governor’s office.

On Tuesday, Steve McCraw, director of Homeland Security for Gov. Rick Perry, told reporters he had been assured by federal officials that the Border Patrol would not ask people for proof of legal status at inland checkpoints like the one in Falfurrias during an evacuation. Instead, they would help move people to safety in the direction of San Antonio, he said.

“They’re not going to be checking anybody going through that northern corridor,” McCraw said on Tuesday.

Federal officials have discussed the issue with Texas leaders but have not made any such promise to the state, said Russ Knocke, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Border Patrol and Customs.



“I think that it’s not a fair or accurate characterization to suggest that commitments were made,” Knocke said.

Instead, federal officials promised to bring the issue to Washington, D.C., to discuss it with other agencies and other departments within DHS, Knocke said.

“We appreciate their raising this issue,” Knocke said. “It is an important policy issue, and it is one that we would like to take a close look at here.”

Border Patrol officials told an evacuation task force last year that it could take as long as two days to evacuate the Valley if everyone were processed through the Falfurrias checkpoint on U.S. Highway 281.

The prediction conjured images of the severe bottlenecks that clogged highways out of Houston when Hurricane Rita was approaching the Texas coast in September 2005.

When asked why McCraw and Knocke have different accounts of the same meeting, Perry’s spokeswoman, Rachael Novier, said: “I wasn’t at the meeting, and I don’t know what was agreed to, but I do know that they agreed to work with us.”

“We have great confidence the Customs and Border Patrol will assist the state in evacuating South Texas while maintaining security,” she said. “It is critical that a plan is in place to prevent dangerous traffic jams if the storm is on course to strike South Texas.

epierson@link.freedom.com