FEMA Spending $608M To Build Immigrant Detention Centers
On today’s episode of Wow, They’re Really Playing In Our Faces Right Now, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced it will send $608 million to states building concentration camps immigrant detention centers. This is after the Trump administration has repeatedly said they’re pulling disaster funding for the states.
So yeah, folks, they’re really playing in our faces right now.
According to NBC News, FEMA is starting a “detention support grant program” to encourage states to build their own detention centers for immigrants, with states having until Aug. 8 to apply for the grant. The move is particularly interesting considering the Trump administration has repeatedly said it wanted to wean states off FEMA funding when it comes to disaster response.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is submitting a grant application to help fund Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz.” The most high-profile of the Trump administration’s immigrant detention centers, Alligator Alcatraz, has already been flagged by the Human Rights Watch for inhumane conditions, reporting several stories of overcrowding, unsanitary living arrangements, and detainees being denied medical treatment.
So FEMA has $608 million to ensure similar atrocities play out nationwide, but actually using the money for its intended purpose, disaster response, is out of the question. Got it.
FEMA has been a continuous source of controversy throughout Trump’s second term. Trump campaigned on making significant overhauls to the disaster response agency and has outright announced his intent to dismantle the organization. The first sign things weren’t going to be business as usual at FEMA is when Trump appointed David Richardson, a man with no experience in disaster response, to lead the organization.
Richardson’s first move wasn’t reassuring FEMA workers that he was there to help them do their job as best as possible, but instead threatened to “run right over” anyone who got in the way of his mission to “achieve the president’s intent.” It’s clear now that the “president’s intent” isn’t simply dismantling FEMA, but turning it into yet another arm of his bootleg Gestapo.
Richardson’s tenure has resulted in a mass exodus of senior leadership at FEMA. Many of these roles require specialized knowledge that only comes from years in the field. FEMA employees find it unlikely the roles will be filled by people with a similar degree of experience.
The recent Texas floods only put the chaos at FEMA on full display. It took FEMA several days to finally get search and rescue teams deployed to Texas, with thousands of calls from Texans affected by the floods going unanswered by the agency. The lackluster response in Texas resulted in FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue chief resigning due to the “chaos” caused by the Trump administration’s changes to the organization.
What makes the detention center funding particularly egregious is that FEMA has repeatedly denied disaster recovery funding to several states throughout the year. Trump called FEMA’s handling of Hurricane Helene “unacceptable” under the Biden administration, only to turn around and deny North Carolina funds for the rebuilding effort.
This has been an ongoing trend at FEMA under the Trump administration. Funding was denied for tornado response in Arkansas, flooding in West Virginia, and last week, funding was denied to Maryland, as they too are rebuilding after facing a flooding event in May.
They don’t want to spend federal funds on helping American citizens rebuild and get back on their feet after experiencing devastating climate events, yet when it comes to finding new and horrific ways to incarcerate Black and brown bodies, they have the money.
They always have the money.
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