Border guards check people's documents during the evacuation of Hurricane Harvey

Фото: Depositphotos

Because of Hurricane Harvey, thousands of Texas residents left their homes to avoid the danger of destructive wind and flooding.

At the same time, the border patrol checkpoints, which check individual documents to make sure that they are legal residents of the United States, remain open, which is atypical for emergency evacuation cases, reports MSN.

US border patrol checkpoints on Hurricane Harvey in Texas are closed only when the highway on which they are located closes. Border patrol points that are outside the path of the hurricane will remain in working condition.

At least several evacuation routes pass right through the border patrol checkpoints: one of the routes passes by Route 44 in Corpus Christi, and the other in Route 35, heading to San Antonio, where control points are located.

The US Border Service announced its intention to "be vigilant against any attempts by criminals to use the failures caused by the storm."

The main priorities of the US Customs and Border Services during a hurricane are to promote rescue and livelihood activities, to safely evacuate people leaving the affected area, to maintain public order and, as far as possible, to prevent loss of property.

During previous storms, in particular Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Isaac in 2012, the border agency temporarily suspended the procedures for catching illegal immigrants and their expulsion.

In the run-up to Hurricane Matthew, the Department of Homeland Security assured that it would not conduct any operations or inspections aimed at identifying undocumented immigrants because “the primary missions of immigration and border agencies are to facilitate life-saving and life-sustaining activities, the safe evacuation of people who are leaving the affected area, maintaining public order and prevention of property loss.”

Activists and civil rights advocates said the new border policy is extremely brutal. According to them, it can lead to deaths due to the fact that some families, which include illegal immigrants, will be afraid to be evacuated from dangerous areas for fear of the arrest of their relative.

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