MCALLEN, Texas — Texas emergency officials Tuesday stood ready to order 1 million people to evacuate 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 Hurricane Ike.
Emergency planning officials were meeting all day to decide whether and when to announce a mandatory evacuation for coastal counties close to the Mexican border.
Authorities lined up nearly 1,000 buses in case they are needed to move out the many poor and elderly without cars.
Federal authorities gave assurances that they would not check the immigration status of evacuees at loading zones or inland checkpoints. But residents were skeptical, and there were concerns that many illegal immigrants would refuse to board buses and go to shelters for fear of getting arrested and deported.
