Illegal immigrants in hurricane shelters shouldn’t fear deportation: White House

The White House said Thursday that illegal immigrants seeking temporary shelter from Hurricane Harvey shouldn’t worry about being deported, unless they’ve committed serious crimes.

“In terms of immediate life-saving, no individual human being should worry about their immigration status, unless they’ve committed a crime on top of coming here illegally, when it comes to getting food, water and shelter,” said Tom Bossert, homeland security adviser to President Trump.

Houston has about 575,000 illegal immigrants living in the region, many of whom have been flooded out of their homes by Harvey. Mr. Bossert said emergency shelters are not being searched by authorities with an eye toward deporting illegals.

“The authorities won’t be conducting any routine [sweeps] or searches inside those shelters,” he said. “We won’t go, sort of, rounding people up when they show up there.Those are shelters for food, water and providing, you know, kind of insulation against exposure.”

But he cautioned that the administration isn’t changing its policy of deporting illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

“If you’ve committed a crime, that’s the priority for the Department of Homeland Security,” Mr. Bossert said. “Our priority will be illegal immigrants that have committed crimes, they’re going to be rounded up, as they always are, and taken out of this country if we find them. I think that’s pretty clear.”