Maybe the ILLEGALS and their Anchors should scurry south of the Border as an evacuation route!

Another ILLEGAL SOB Story by Falkenberg.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 91122.html

Lisa Falkenberg



May 19, 2008, 11:28PM
Evacuation hurdles are a threat to all


Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

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Take a moment to recall the chaos.

The claustrophobic caravan of cars, trucks and SUVs creeping along a highway evacuation route-turned-prison with hundreds of thousands — by some estimates, millions — of men, women and children trapped in the steamy confines.

Recall the overheating engines, gas tanks bled dry, pumps tapped out. I'm still haunted by the image of one woman who carried the limp body of a toddler in her arms as she ran from car to car in search of water.

Now take those memories of the 2005 evacuation before Hurricane Rita and add another obstacle: a Border Patrol checkpoint at which each and every car would be stopped, drivers questioned, suspicious vehicles searched while those behind languish in the logjam.


At odds with security chief
That's the plan, announced last week by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in the event of a hurricane evacuation of the Rio Grande Valley. It's at odds with the recommendations of the state's homeland security director Steve McCraw and Gov. Rick Perry, who, his spokeswoman told me, plans to take up the issue with Border Patrol Commissioner W. Ralph Basham in a meeting Thursday.

But if the Border Patrol won't budge, the stubborn policy could push chaos into catastrophe.

Border Patrol agents plan to check the citizenship of people passing through inland traffic checkpoints and those boarding buses to leave the Valley. Evacuees deemed to be in the country illegally will be hauled off to detention centers, where they'll be a safe distance from the hurricane but in the direct pathway of deportation proceedings.

No matter how noble Border Patrol's mission to protect our borders, in the face of a natural disaster, checking carloads of fleeing residents for documentation of citizenship is a bit like arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

In the eyes of migrants and families with undocumented members, safety routes such as highways and buses quickly morph into dangerous dragnets to be avoided at all costs.


Should some stay behind?
The effect of such fears is documented. During the wildfire evacuations last year in California, simply the rumors of deportations and the mere presence of Border Patrol at shelters were enough to scare off illegal immigrants.

At the time, the feds denied that they had been rounding up illegal immigrants at evacuation centers. A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement was quoted in a Los Angeles Times story, saying, "We are not arresting fire evacuees. It's absolutely ludicrous to suggest otherwise."

Apparently, the idea is less ludicrous in the eyes of the Border Patrol when it involves hurricane evacuees.

As a hurricane approaches, the goal should be to lure as many people as possible to safety. Considering the challenge involved in convincing the general population to evacuate, why would we create another reason for certain people to remain in harm's way?

To further complicate matters, Border Patrol officials can't say for sure how they'll handle the inevitable cases of uncertainty, mix-ups or situations where citizen children are traveling with undocumented parents or grandparents.

But all moral questions and compassion aside, simple common sense dictates that any unnecessary obstacle that slows a massive evacuation of potentially more than a million people is a bad idea.

That said, it should be noted that some have suggested Border Patrol is talking big about the checkpoint issue mainly to ward off criminal activity. Border Patrol officials may fully realize that they'll have to be more lax on enforcement during an evacuation but can't very well advertise that in the media. If this is true, it's reassuring.

But as the San Antonio Express-News reported last week, a reporter saw Border Patrol agents in a mock evacuation rehearsing citizenship document checks of people boarding buses. A Border Patrol spokesman confirmed that this and the open highway checkpoints were the planned procedures during an actual event.

"It's business as usual at the checkpoints," the spokesman, Dan Doty, was quoted telling the Express-News.

The impending threat of a natural disaster is about as far from "business as usual" as you can get. Especially in a region with only one safe escape route.

Let's hope that the governor and concerned Valley officials can talk some sense into Border Patrol officials, for the sake of all residents involved.

lisa.falkenberg@chron.com