Border Patrol to check legal status of evacuees

Plans by the Border Patrol to check the immigration status of people fleeing a hurricane could slow the county's evacuation process, or scare people from buses sent to rescue them, Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos said Wednesday.

But Border Patrol spokesman Dan Doty said the screenings can be done quickly and are necessary for national security.

"We do not want the possibility of someone wanting to do our country harm of getting through the checkpoint," Doty said Wednesday.

As emergency officials continued a two-day hurricane drill, Cascos said he has serious questions about plans by federal agencies to do immigration checks in the middle of an evacuation.

"I think it's going to depend on how many Border Patrol agents they have, how organized they have it," Cascos said.

The county plans to collect people from around the county in school buses and transfer them to motor coaches in San Benito.

Interviewing each evacuee may waste valuable time, the judge said.

"Quite frankly, we're going to have a couple of problems," Cascos said.

"One, the people who are here illegally are not going to show up to be evacuated," he said.

Many local families are a mix of U.S. citizens and relatives who lack immigration documents, Cascos said. So the other problem is that if some relatives can't evacuate, the whole family may just stay put, he said.

"Whether they're legal or not, we're not going to ask," Cascos said. "Our role is to evacuate as many people as we can, to safeguard lives."

But word will spread fast if the Border Patrol is checking papers, Cascos said.

The county's priority is to get people out of rural, flood-prone areas before the storm strikes, he said. If people stay in those areas to avoid Border Patrol agents, the county may have to rescue them after flooding occurs, the judge said.

Doty said people detained would be kept at "hurricane-proof" facilities in Harlingen and Edinburg, or may be transferred to safer areas such as Laredo or even El Paso.

"Our agents are very proficient," he said. "It may be a simple matter of asking someone if they are U.S. citizens, or it could be more time-intensive. That's why we have these drills."

By pre-screening people boarding buses at San Benito, bottlenecks at Border Patrol checkpoints will be eliminated so traffic will not be slowed on major highways, Doty said.

"We're there to work with (state, county and local agencies), but at the end of the day, we're still going to do our jobs," Doty said.

Families will make their own choices about evacuating, Cascos said.

"One option is that there's no checkpoints going southbound," he said.