The Department of Homeland Security will temporarily reassign personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to aid the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division with an influx of applications just as hurricane season hits its peak, The Washington Post reported.
"Through the One Big Beautiful Bill, DHS is adopting an all-hands-on-deck strategy to recruit 10,000 new ICE agents," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to the outlet. "To support this effort, select FEMA employees will temporarily be detailed to ICE for 90 days to assist with hiring and vetting," McLaughlin said. "Their deployment will NOT disrupt FEMA’s critical operations. FEMA remains fully prepared for Hurricane Season. Patriotic Americans are encouraged to apply at join.ice.gov."
Critics have cautioned the Trump administration and their efforts to tamper with FEMA and the agency's traditional role of disaster relief in order to aid the deportation of migrants. The reallocation of staff to assist ICE comes as FEMA announced last month a new grant program that allocated $608 million for states to "increase the detention capacity" to hold illegal immigrants detained by ICE officers.
Some longtime staff members have let their objections be known by leaving the agency just as hurricane season was beginning. In June, Jeremy Greenberg, the leader of the FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center, resigned from his position. FEMA Acting Director David Richardson said all the changes are part of a plan to "return primacy to the states" which would entail putting far more financial burden on disaster inflicted states.
President Donald Trump has said that his administration had planned a "phasing out" of FEMA and likened the decision to "a little bit like education," saying governors and other state officials are better positioned to address natural disasters. While the administration presses on with their changes, the Democrats continue to try to block their efforts via lawsuits. On Tuesday a federal court temporarily blocked the administration from relocating funds for FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program used to help communities prevent storm damage.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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