Federal authorities are declaring “hurricane amnesty” in hopes that undocumented immigrants in Texas won’t try to weather Hurricane Ike in place, according to a report in the Christian Science Monitor Thursday. Law enforcement officials will not check identification at shelters, monitor roadways, or man checkpoints in an effort to induce illegal immigrants to evacuate safely, according to the report.
Although police and other agencies were distributing flyers informing the estimated 1.6 million undocumented residents that evacuation was safe, many believed previous immigration enforcement efforts—including a May Border Patrol proclamation saying those who couldn’t prove citizenship would be held specially designed areas ‘made to withstand hurricanes’ rather than evacuated—would hamper any efforts to get those without documentation to leave.
The Washington Post gave a similar example: Although Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the Border Patrol would not impede a hurricane evacuation, checkpoints were kept open—and a van load of illegal immigrants apprehended—during Hurricane Dolly’s strike in July, according to a report Wednesday. Evacuation in that case was not mandatory, according to the Post.
Read more about the evacuation quagmire in the Monitor at and in the Washington Post.
Jolie Breeden is the lead editor and science communicator for Natural Hazards Center publications. She writes and edits for Research Counts; the Quick Response, Mitigation Matters, Public Health, and Weather Ready Research Award report series; as well as for special projects and publications. Breeden graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.