The mayor of Dallas, Texas reassured illegal immigrants affected by Hurricane Harvey that the city would not be checking their immigration status as they try to seek shelter there.
“We are not asking for immigration status or papers from anyone at any of our shelters. We are using every resource available to assist evacuees. Our priority is protecting and sheltering our fellow Texans. #HurricaneHarvey,” Mayor Mike Rawlings, a Democrat, wrote Wednesday on his Facebook page.
Thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes due to record-setting rainfall and catastrophic flooding that has paralyzed parts of southeastern Texas.
Shelters in Houston, including the George R. Brown Convention Center, have reached capacity. Dallas opened a shelter at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on Tuesday, and Rawlings said Dallas-area shelters can accommodate roughly 6,000 evacuees.
In addition to the convention center, the Dallas Independent School District is opening three of its schools to students forced to leave southeastern Texas.
Dallas’s message to illegal immigrants comes after the city of Houston offered its own reassurances to illegal immigrants. On its Twitter account, Houston said Monday it would not be asking for immigration status or immigration papers from anyone at area shelters.
The federal government, too, attempted to debunk rumors that illegal immigrants at shelters would be reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said on an information page dedicated to Hurricane Harvey that neither ICE nor CBP were conducting immigration enforcement at shelters or food banks.
“Routine non-criminal immigration enforcement operations will not be conducted at evacuation sites, or assistance centers such as shelters or food banks,” ICE and CBP said in a joint statement on Aug. 25.
