Critics cry foul over DPS license checkpoint plan

Some lawmakers say stops would unfairly target illegal immigrants

Looks very similar to the Texas Identification Card.


By JAMES PINKERTON and SUSAN CARROLL
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 12, 2008, 7:04AM


The state agency that imposed new rules barring illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses is requesting authority to set up statewide driver's license checkpoints, part of what several lawmakers suspect is a plan to crack down on illegal immigrants.

A number of state legislators argue the Department of Public Safety Commission overstepped its authority Aug. 25 by issuing new rules requiring applicants to prove they are here legally before they can obtain or renew a Texas driver's license. Their suspicions deepened when, two weeks later, the commission's chairman asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott if it was legal for the commission to set up driver's license checkpoints.

Staffed by state troopers or local police, the checkpoints would stop drivers to review their licenses, vehicle registrations and proof of insurance.

State Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, believes the two commission actions are taking aim at policing immigration.

''A state agency is making immigration policy for the state of Texas, and that is not their job," McClendon said.

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, said when commission chairman Allan B. Polunsky asked Abbott's office about authorizing checkpoints, she figured the target was drunken drivers.

''But when I saw the driver's license regulations, I said, 'Maybe they're not after Texas' drunk drivers, but maybe they're after undocumented people and this is a mechanism to get them," Van de Putte said.

She and 14 other Texas lawmakers sent Abbott a letter asking him to ignore the commission's legal opinion request because the Legislature has not authorized a DPS checkpoint program. It's unclear when Abbott will issue his opinion.

Polunsky did not return calls for comment.

Gov. Rick Perry favors the checkpoints, said spokeswoman Allison Castle. ''Police officers and law enforcement believe this is an important technique in protecting the public, and to that end, the governor supports providing our law enforcement officers with the tools they need to ensure public safety," Castle said.

DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said license requirements were tightened for security reasons, changes other states have made since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

''We are not enforcing the federal immigration laws," Mange said. "We are ensuring that applicants for Texas driver's licenses and ID cards have legal presence in the United States."

State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, called checkpoints a ''tremendous asset" that could cut down on drunken driving, car theft and motorists whose licenses have been revoked.

''For the people who want to erase our borders, for people who don't care if our laws are broken, and for people who are driving illegally, and for those who think that's fine, yes, this could be a problem," Riddle said.


Random traffic stops illegal
Checkpoints have not been allowed in Texas since the state Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in 1994 they must be authorized by a ''politically accountable governing body at the state level." That case involved a sobriety checkpoint in Arlington.

In 1979, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that random traffic stops to check driver's licenses, where officers did not have reasonable suspicion, were unconstitutional.

However, the ruling does not prevent state ''spot checks that involve less intrusion or that do not involve the unconstrained exercise of discretion," the justices wrote. ''Questioning of all oncoming traffic at roadblock-type stops is one possible alternative."

DPS Capt. Jerome Powell, who supervises driver's license offices in Houston, said the new regulations won't stop illegal immigrants from driving.

''They have to survive and go to work," Powell said.

No official tally exists of how many of Texas' estimated 1.7 million illegal immigrants have a driver's license.

DPS officials say nearly 3 million noncitizens are among the approximately 20 million Texas residents who carry state documents. They include 1.81 million noncitizens with licenses and another 1 million immigrants who have been issued state identity cards.

One indicator of the undocumented component of Texas license holders may be the nearly 380,000 applicants who filed DPS forms since June 2003 indicating they did not have a Social Security number.


Concerns about profiling
Activists worry that the new immigrant driver's licenses, along with checkpoints, are a recipe for profiling immigrants.

''Our number one concern is the potential for profiling since it puts the immigration identifier on the license," said Luis Figueroa, legislative staff attorney with the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "It leads to potential profiling, whether it's a police officer who is going to scrutinize someone closer, or a landlord who may not want to rent out a property."

One person who could get caught in the checkpoints is Susanne Dennis, a 40-year-old legal immigrant from Germany.

In 2005, she came to the U.S. on a fiancé visa after falling for her now-husband, Michael Dennis, a 43-year-old security technician she met on the Internet. After they married in Maryland, Susanne was granted a provisional green card and obtained a Maryland driver's license.

Then Michael was transferred to Houston, and the coupled settled in Spring.

On Oct. 29, Susanne tried to apply for a Texas driver's license at DPS office in Humble, only to discover she didn't have acceptable proof of legal status.

Susanne had been granted a one-year extension so she could work in the U.S. while awaiting a permanent green card. But the form showing her extension was not on the list of accepted documents, so DPS turned her away.

Susanne, who works in Montrose, now drives into the city each morning fearful of being stopped by police. She feels lucky to still have a valid Maryland license and car insurance through her husband.

She's upset that she can't comply with Texas law requiring a driver's license within 30 days of moving to the state.

''What if a state trooper pulls me over?" Susanne said. ''What do I show him?"

james.pinkerton@chron.com

susan.carroll@chron.com

Feds: Evacuees' Immigration Status Won't be Checked

Evacuee Concerns

Deportation fears may stop illegals from evacuating

WESLACO - Federal authorities say they won't check the immigration status of evacuees at loading zones or other checkpoints.

There's a big concern illegal immigrants may risk their lives by refusing to board buses, because they're afraid of being arrested or deported.

Officials say illegals have more to fear from a hurricane than they do the Border Patrol. They encourage everyone, regardless of immigration status, to leave if an evacuation order is issued.

Ike predicted to hit Texas, Lubbock prepares for evacuees

By: Matt Cobb

With Hurricane Ike steaming into the Gulf of Mexico, Texas emergency officials Tuesday stood ready to evacuate 1 million people from the impoverished Rio Grande Valley.

They put Lubbock on standby to provide refuge to what could be as many as 1,000 evacuees.

The Lubbock City Council appropriated $500,000 for emergency items to provide assistance and care to the evacuees, according to a statement made by the city. The state will reimburse all of the city's expenditures.

The Lubbock-based American Red Cross South Plains Regional Chapter is waiting to be notified by its national chapter before it begins to provide aid in response to the storm, said Megan Graham, fund development director of the chapter.

The chapter already is preparing to help with the evacuees and is waiting for proper notification, Graham said. It is planning to provide assistance both in Lubbock and wherever the storm makes landfall.

"We have a possibility of sending out an emergency response vehicle down to the coastline," Graham said. "It can feed up to 500 people at one time and could be down there for up to two weeks."

The City Bank Auditorium and Coliseum is set up to hold evacuees, Graham said, including 500 cots that were set up for evacuees expected to arrive after Hurricane Gustav. Necessary supplies also are in place.

The Texas Tech Police Department is preparing to provide security support to evacuees, said Gordon Hoffman, deputy chief of the department. They are planning to provide security to the coliseum and to aid with possible parking issues in any way they can if evacuees are brought to Lubbock.

"The word I've been given is that the city may get up to 1,000 evacuees," Hoffman said. "They could start arriving as soon as tomorrow, so we're preparing right now."

Emergency planning officials met all day Tuesday to decide if and when to announce a mandatory evacuation for coastal counties close to the Mexican border, according to the Associated Press.

With forecasts showing Hurricane Ike blowing ashore this weekend, authorities lined up nearly 1,000 buses in the region in case they are needed to move out the many poor and elderly people who have no cars.

Federal authorities gave assurances they would not check evacuees' immigration status at evacuation loading zones or inland checkpoints.

But residents were skeptical, according to the AP, and there were worries that many illegal immigrants would refuse to board buses and go to shelters for fear of getting arrested and deported.

"People are nervous," said the Rev. Michael Seifert, a Roman Catholic priest and immigrant advocate, according to the AP. "The message that was given to me was that it's going to be a real problem."

One reason for the skepticism: Back in May, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the U.S. Border Patrol would do nothing to impede an evacuation in the event of a hurricane. But when Hurricane Dolly struck the Rio Grande Valley in late July, no mandatory evacuation was ordered, and as a result the U.S. Border Patrol kept its checkpoints open. Agents soon caught a vanload of illegal immigrants.

It would be the first mandatory large-scale evacuation in South Texas history. State and county officials let people decide for themselves whether to leave a hurricane area until just before Hurricane Rita struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. Now county officials can order people out of harm's way.

Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas said to the AP if an evacuation is ordered this time, county officials will visit immigrant neighborhoods and forcefully urge people to clear out.

After Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav, "There were a lot of immigrants who said, 'I'm not going to go,'" said Salinas, the county's top elected official. "It's going to be hard."

In Washington, Rear Adm. W. Craig Vanderwagen, assistant U.S. health secretary for preparedness and response, told reporters: "In storm events, if people are trapped it doesn't particularly matter to those of us in the humanitarian assistance world which side of that border they come from. We will do what we need to do to evacuate the people who need to be evacuated."

At 5 p.m. EDT, Ike was about 90 miles southwest of Havana, Cuba, moving northwest at 10 mph with sustained winds near 75 mph. It was expected to cross the Gulf of Mexico, strengthening to a Category 3 with winds of up to 130 mph.

Forecasters said that it could hit on Saturday morning almost anywhere along the Texas coast, with the most likely spot close to the Corpus Christi area.

Areas from Matagorda Bay to Corpus Christi and south to Brownsville - about 250 miles of coastline - were told to prepare for possible mandatory evacuation.

On Tuesday, Ike roared across Cuba, ravaging homes, killing at least four people and forcing 1.2 million to evacuate.

The Rio Grande Valley is still soggy from Dolly, which flooded the region, damaging hundreds of homes but killing no one. Many homes still have blue tarps on their roofs.

The Rio Grande Valley's residents are among those least equipped to handle hurricane flooding. It is one of the poorest parts of the country, with one-third of all families living below the poverty line, compared with 10 percent nationally.

Colonias, or ramshackle communities often lacking sewer systems and paved streets, dot the Valley. Even an ordinary rainstorm can fill yards with disease-ridden sewage from flooded septic tanks. Many of the poor lack health insurance.

Mexican officials said more than a dozen dams in the northern state of Chihuahua were at capacity or spilling over, heightening fears of flooding on the American side of the border.

Gov. Rick Perry declared 88 coastal counties disaster areas Monday to start the flow of state aid, and began preparing for an evacuation, lining up "buses rather than body bags."

The Dallas-Fort Worth area sheltered about 3,000 Hurricane Gustav evacuees last week and is prepared for up to about 20,000 people this time, said Steve Griggs, a county official, according to the AP. The downtown convention center would again serve as the main shelter.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
© Copyright 2008 Daily Toreador

Texas officials weigh evacuations as Ike nears

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — With Hurricane Ike steaming into the Gulf of Mexico, Texas emergency officials Tuesday stood ready to order 1 million people evacuated from the impoverished Rio Grande Valley and tried to convince tens of thousands of illegal immigrants that they have less to fear from the Border Patrol than from the storm.

Emergency planning officials were meeting all day to decide if and when to announce a mandatory evacuation for coastal counties close to the Mexican border.

With forecasts showing Ike blowing ashore this weekend, authorities lined up nearly 1,000 buses in case they are needed to move out the many poor and elderly people who have no cars.

Farther up the coast, officials in the county surrounding Corpus Christi planned to begin busing people who have special medical needs inland on Wednesday.

Federal authorities gave assurances they would not check people's immigration status at evacuation loading zones or inland checkpoints. But residents were skeptical, and there were worries that many illegal immigrants would refuse to board buses and go to shelters for fear of getting arrested and deported.

"People are nervous," said the Rev. Michael Seifert, a Roman Catholic priest and immigrant advocate. "The message that was given to me was that it's going to be a real problem."

One reason for the skepticism: Back in May, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the Border Patrol would do nothing to impede an evacuation in the event of a hurricane. But when Hurricane Dolly struck the Rio Grande Valley in late July, no mandatory evacuation was ordered, and as a result the Border Patrol kept its checkpoints open. Agents soon caught a van load of illegal immigrants.

It would be the first mandatory large-scale evacuation in South Texas history. State and county officials let people decide for themselves whether to leave a hurricane area until just before Hurricane Rita struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. Now county officials can order people out of harm's way.

Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas said if an evacuation is ordered this time, county officials will visit immigrant neighborhoods and forcefully urge people to clear out.

After Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav, "there were a lot of immigrants who said, `I'm not going to go,'" said Salinas, the county's top elected official. "It's going to be hard."

In Washington, Rear Adm. W. Craig Vanderwagen, assistant U.S. health secretary for preparedness and response, told reporters: "In storm events, if people are trapped it doesn't particularly matter to those of us in the humanitarian assistance world which side of that border they come from. We will do what we need to do to evacuate the people who need to be evacuated."

At 11 p.m. EDT, Ike was about 120 miles west of Havana, Cuba, moving west-northwest near 9 mph with sustained winds near 80 mph. It was expected to cross the Gulf of Mexico, strengthening to a Category 3 with winds of up to 130 mph.

Forecasters said that it could hit on Saturday morning just about anywhere along the Texas coast, with the most likely spot close to the Corpus Christi area.

Areas from Matagorda Bay to Corpus Christi and south to Brownsville — about 250 miles of coastline — were told to prepare for possible mandatory evacuation.

On Tuesday, Ike roared across Cuba, ravaging homes, killing at least four people and forcing 1.2 million to evacuate.

The Rio Grande Valley is still soggy from Dolly, which flooded the region, damaging hundreds of homes but killing no one. Many homes still have blue tarps on their roofs.

The Rio Grande Valley's residents are among those least equipped to handle hurricane flooding. It is one of the poorest parts of the country, with one-third of all families living below the poverty line, compared with 10 percent nationally.

Colonias, or ramshackle communities often lacking sewer systems and paved streets, dot the Valley. Even an ordinary rainstorm can fill yards with disease-ridden sewage from flooded septic tanks. Many of the poor lack health insurance.

Mexican officials said more than a dozen dams in the northern state of Chihuahua were at capacity or spilling over, heightening fears of flooding on the American side of the border.

Gov. Rick Perry declared 88 coastal counties disaster areas Monday to start the flow of state aid, and began preparing for an evacuation, lining up "buses rather than body bags."

The Dallas-Fort Worth area sheltered about 3,000 Hurricane Gustav evacuees last week and is prepared for up to about 20,000 people this time, said Steve Griggs, a county official. The downtown convention center would again serve as the main shelter.

Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan in Washington, April Castro in Austin, Texas, and Jeff Carlton in Dallas contributed to this report.