Tag Archives: Federal Emergency Management Agency

NBC News: ICE is leaning hard on recruitment, but immigration experts say that could come at a price

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ICE is using signing bonuses and a celebrity endorsement to encourage Americans to join its ranks. Experts doubt that the recruitment will improve public safety.

“If you actually wanted the immigration system to work, you would be hiring thousands of immigration judges, you would be funding prosecutors, you would be funding defense lawyers,” he said. “If what we wanted was a fair and fast system, it would be the complete opposite of this.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is pushing the message that it wants “patriotic Americans” to join its ranks — and that new perks come with signing up.

The agency enforcing President Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations is promising new recruits maximum $50,000 signing bonuses over three years, up to $60,000 in federal student loan repayments and retirement benefits. ICE announced this week it is waiving age requirements and, on Wednesday, actor Dean Cain, who played Superman in “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” announced on social media that he was joining the ranks of ICE as an honorary officer.

“I felt it was important to join with our first responders to help secure the safety of all Americans, not just talk about it, so I joined up,” Cain said. He encouraged others to join ICE as officers, touting the job’s salary and benefits.

The possibility of monetary benefits and the celebrity endorsement have experts concerned. They fear the recruitment push could endanger public safety if it takes local police away from their communities, removes important personnel from other critical missions or cuts corners in the rush to hire.

Immigration and law enforcement experts also said the hiring push does not reflect the public safety threat posed by unauthorized immigrants, as recent data shows many people who have been arrested by ICE during the Trump administration do not have criminal histories. One in 5 people ICE apprehended in street arrests was a Latino with no criminal history or removal orders, according to an analysis of new ICE data by the Cato Institute, a libertarian public policy think tank.

“We’re moving further away from actually keeping people safe through this,” Jason Houser, who held senior Department of Homeland Security positions during the Obama and Biden administrations, told NBC News.

DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on concerns about recent recruitment efforts and whether they could come at the expense of other critical tasks.

The administration has said it wants to add 10,000 ICE agents to carry out Trump’s promise of mass deportations. That effort recently received an unprecedented influx of funding after the Republican-led Congress passed a bill that includes nearly $30 billion for ICE’s deportation and enforcement operations, tripling the agency’s budget.

DHS recently launched an initiative called “Defend the Homeland” with the goal of recruiting “patriots to join ICE law enforcement” and meet Trump’s goal of deporting 1 million immigrants per year.

The department has since announced new incentives or waived previous requirements to fulfill its goal.

“Your country is calling you to serve at ICE. In the wake of the Biden administration’s failed immigration policies, your country needs dedicated men and women of ICE to get the worst of the worst criminals out of our country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement announcing the initiative.

On Wednesday, DHS said it was ending age limits to join ICE “so even more patriots will qualify to join ICE in its mission.”

Previously, new applicants needed to be at least 21 years old to join. They had to be no older than 37 to be criminal investigators and 40 to be considered as deportation officers. Asked whether there would be any age limits, DHS referred NBC News to a social media clip of Noem saying recruits could sign up at 18.

The department is also using its monetary incentives to try to lure recruits. The “significant new funding” from Congress will fund perks like the signing bonuses, federal student loan repayments and options for enhanced overtime pay and retirement benefits.

Houser raised concerns over the claim that more ICE officers would directly equate to better public safety.

“ICE now has this new gorge of money. But what is the public safety and national security threat? Is it the individuals ICE is now arresting? Many of them are not criminals; a lot of them have no removal orders,” he said.

Almost half of the people in ICE custody have neither been convicted of nor charged with any crime, ICE data shows. In late June, internal data obtained by NBC News showed that after six months of aggressive immigration enforcement and promises to focus on deporting violent criminals, the Trump administration has arrested and detained only a small fraction of the undocumented immigrants already known to ICE as having been convicted of sexual assault and homicide.

DHS did not immediately respond to questions about the arrests of those with criminal records compared with those without.

“Arresting people who are not public safety or national security threats because of the current atmosphere of limited resources just simply means that there are fewer resources for prioritizing people who pose bigger threats,” said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst with the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute.

Shifting resources to immigration enforcement

In its push, DHS is recruiting not just those new to law enforcement.

The agency has also faced some recent criticism for aggressively recruiting new agents from some of its most trusted local partners.

Jonathan Thompson, the executive director and CEO of the National Sheriffs’ Association, said in a previous interview that the recruitment efforts targeting local law enforcement were “bad judgment that will cause an erosion of a relationship that has been improving of late.”

“It’s going to take leadership at DHS to really take stock, because, hey, they need state and locals,” Thompson said.

The administration is also shifting current personnel to help arrest undocumented immigrants — including more than 5,000 personnel from across federal law enforcement agencies and up to 21,000 National Guard troops, according to an operation plan described to NBC News by three sources with knowledge of the personnel allocations who detailed the previously unreported plans.

The plan, which is already underway, calls for using 3,000 ICE agents, including 1,800 from Homeland Security Investigations, which generally investigates transnational crimes and is not typically involved in arresting noncriminal immigrants. In addition, it involves 2,000 Justice Department employees from the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration and 500 employees from Customs and Border Protection. It also includes 250 IRS agents, some of whom may be used to provide information on the whereabouts of immigrants using tax information, while others would have the authority to make arrests, according to the operation plan.

“You have people, literally, whose job it is to go after fentanyl being forced to spend their time arresting grandmas on the streets of Los Angeles,” said Scott Shuchart, who was an ICE official in the Biden administration. “That is a huge and bizarre public safety trade off.”

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson previously said in a statement: “Enforcing our immigration laws and removing illegal aliens is one big way President Trump is ‘Making America Safe Again.’ But the president can walk and chew gum at the same time. We’re holding all criminals accountable, whether they’re illegal aliens or American citizens. That’s why nationwide murder rates have plummeted, fugitives from the FBI’s most wanted list have been captured, and police officers are empowered to do their jobs, unlike under the Biden Administration’s soft-on-crime regime.”

The administration is also shifting some employees with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, during hurricane season, to assist ICE, DHS said in a statement Thursday.

“DHS is adopting an all-hands-on-deck strategy to recruit 10,000 new ICE agents. To support this effort, select FEMA employees will temporarily be detailed to ICE for 90 days to assist with hiring and vetting,” DHS said. “Their deployment will NOT disrupt FEMA’s critical operations. FEMA remains fully prepared for Hurricane Season.”

DHS said on July 31 that it has issued over “1,000 tentative job offers since July 4, marking a significant milestone in its ongoing recruitment efforts.” Some of the offers were to several retired officers.

The agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment about its seeking to recruit local law enforcement or shifting other federal personnel to ICE.

Houser said it will be important to see what kind of standards will be in place for new hires and whether they are being properly vetted and trained.

Houser said that traditionally it has been difficult to recruit such hires. “ICE officers take about 12 to 18 months to come online,” he said.

Shuchart said the Trump administration is “not irrational for wishing they could make things quicker. The question is, are they making things quicker in ways that make sense, or are they taking shortcuts that are dangerous?”

He said that prioritizing increasing the number of deportation officers could be “exacerbating the problems.”

“If you actually wanted the immigration system to work, you would be hiring thousands of immigration judges, you would be funding prosecutors, you would be funding defense lawyers,” he said. “If what we wanted was a fair and fast system, it would be the complete opposite of this.”

ICE is leaning hard on recruitment, but immigration experts say that could come at a price
ICE is using signing bonuses and a celebrity endorsement to encourage Americans to join its ranks. Experts doubt that the recruitment will improve public safety.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ice-recruitment-dean-cain-signing-bonus-noem-immigration-rcna223463

CBS News: Kristi Noem says “Alligator Alcatraz” to be model for ICE state-run detention centers

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Perhaps coming soon to Arizona, Nebraska and Louisiana?

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says “Alligator Alcatraz” will serve as a model for state-run migrant detention centers, and she told CBS News in an interview that she hopes to launch a handful of similar detention centers in multiple airports and jails across the country, in the coming months. Potential sites are already under consideration in Arizona, Nebraska and Louisiana. 

“The locations we’re looking at are right by airport runways that will help give us an efficiency that we’ve never had before,” Noem said, adding that she’s appealed directly to governors and state leaders nationwide to gauge their interest in contributing to the Trump administration’s program to detain and deport more unauthorized migrants. 

“Most of them are interested,” Noem said, adding that in states that support President Trump’s mission of securing the southern border, “many of them have facilities that may be empty or underutilized.”

The Department of Homeland Security strategy builds on the opening of a 3,000-bed immigration detention center at a jetport in South Florida last month. Dubbed Alligator Alcatraz by state and federal officials, the makeshift facility will cost an estimated $450 million to operate in its first year. Up and running in just 8 days, the tents and trailers at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport are surrounded by 39 square miles of isolated swampland, boasting treacherous terrain and wildlife  

Last month, President Trump toured the facility, seeing rows of bunk beds lined up behind chain fences and encircled by razor wire. Mr. Trump joked to reporters there that “we’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison.” Asked if the temporary facility would be a model of what’s to come, the president said he’d like to see similar operations in “many states.”

The Arizona’s governor’s office told CBS News it has not been approached about a state-run facility. 

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s office said in a statement that his administration “continues to be in communication with federal partners on how Nebraska can best assist in these efforts,” but added that for now, “it is premature to comment” and the governor would “make details public at the appropriate time.”

For her part, Noem called the Alligator Alcatraz model “much better” than the current detention prototype, which largely contracts out its Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention capacity to for-profit prison companies and county jails. ICE is an agency that falls under DHS. This model relies on intergovernmental service agreements (IGSAs) negotiated and signed between ICE and individual localities. She called the Florida facility — with an eventual price tag of $245 per inmate bed, per night, according to DHS officials — a cost-effective option. “Obviously it was much less per-bed cost than what some of the previous contracts under the Department of Homeland Security were.”

According to the Office of Homeland Security Statistics, the estimated average daily cost of detaining an adult migrant in fiscal year 2024 was about $165, though the actual cost of detention typically varies based on region, length of stay and facility type.

Still, Noem argued that the new venues, all with close proximity to airports or runways, will help ICE to cut costs by “facilitating quick turnarounds.” 

“They’re all strategically designed to make sure that people are in beds for less days,” Noem said, adding that some of the facilities being considered are still undergoing vetting by the department and subject to ongoing negotiations. “It can be much more efficient once they get their hearings, due process, paperwork.”

Unlike Alligator Alcatraz, which uses funds from a shelter, food and transportation program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Noem said the state-based initiative will tap into a new $45 billion funding pool for ICE prompted by President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”, which was signed into law last month. The pool of money is allocated specifically to the expansion of ICE’s detention network and will nearly double the agency’s bedspace capacity of 61,000 beds, based on cost analysis. As of Saturday, ICE was holding just over 57,000 individuals in its detention network in more than 150 facilities nationwide.

Noem — who has implemented a department-wide policy across DHS of personally approving each and every contract and grant over $100,000 — said keeping ICE detention contracts to a duration of under five years is now “the model we’ve pushed for.” For instance, she added, Alligator Alcatraz is a one-year contract that can be renewed. 

“For me personally, the question that I’ve asked of every one of these contracts is, why are we signing 15-year deals?” Noem said. “I have to look at our mission. If we’re still building out and processing 100,000 detention beds 15 years from now, then we didn’t do our job.”

The new policy is a departure from earlier agreements made under the Trump administration. In February, ICE signed a 15-year, $1 billion deal with the GEO Group, a private prison company, to reopen Delaney Hall, a two-story, 1,000-bed facility that ranks among the largest detention centers in the Northeast.

Still, Noem said she doesn’t feel the U.S. is moving away from a private detention model. “I mean, these are competitive contracts,” she said. “I want everybody to be at the table, giving us solutions. I just want them to give us a contract that actually does the job — a contract that doesn’t put more money in their pockets while keeping people in detention beds just for the sake of that contract.”

But Alligator Alcatraz has also come under fire from attorneys claiming that both the Trump and DeSantis administrations are holding detainees without charge or access to immigration courts, violating their constitutional rights. Attorneys argued in a legal filing last month that unauthorized migrants held at the Florida-run site have no legal recourse to challenge their detention. 

Lawyers and experts have also called into question the very legality of a state-run immigration detention center, given the federal government’s authority over immigration enforcement. Opening the detention center in the Everglades under Florida’s emergency state powers marked a departure from the federal government’s role of housing migrant detainees, an option typically reserved for those who’ve recently entered the country illegally or those with criminal convictions. 

A U.S. district judge last week ordered state and federal officials to provide a copy of the agreement showing “who’s running the show” at the Everglades immigrant-detention center. 

“Florida does not have the legal authority to detain undocumented immigrants in the absence of a contract with ICE,” said Kevin Landy, the director of detention policy and planning for ICE under President Barack Obama. “A state government can’t do that.” 

Detainees held at Alligator Alcatraz have also claimed unsanitary and inhumane conditions, including food with maggots, denial of religious rights and limited access to both legal assistance and water. Florida officials have denied the accusations. 

Still, tucked away in the Florida Everglades 45 miles west of Miami, if its location sounds treacherous, Noem concedes, that’s kind of the point. “There definitely is a message that it sends,” the secretary said. “President Trump wants people to know if you are a violent criminal and you’re in this country illegally, there will be consequences.”

Noem offered that deterrence is an effective strategy based on U.S. gathered intelligence “from three letter agencies, from other intelligence officials throughout the federal government and in a lot of the Latin American and South American countries” that indicates “overwhelmingly, what encourages people to go back home voluntarily is the consequences.”

“They see the laws being enforced in the United States,” Noem said. “They know when they are here illegally and if they are detained, they’ll be removed. They see that they may never get the chance to come back to America. And they’re voluntarily coming home.”

The DHS secretary met with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in March. “One of the questions I asked President Scheinbaum when I was in Mexico is, ‘Do you have any idea how many people may have come back to Mexico that we may not know about,'” Noem said. 

“[Sheinbaum] said 500,000 to 600,000 people have come back to Mexico voluntarily since President Trump’s been in office,” Noem continued, explaining that the Mexican president believes her reluctant citizens fear losing the chance to return to the U.S. on a visa or work program.

It’s a datapoint she solicits from many of the foreign leaders she meets with, including Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, who shared a 90-minute lunch with the DHS secretary in Quito, last Thursday. “I asked him the same question,” Noem recalled. “He doesn’t have as many illegal immigrants in the United States as in Mexico and Venezuela, but he said he thinks over 100,000 of his citizens have come back to Ecuador. And that’s a huge number.” 

Noem reasoned that her Ecuadorian counterpart’s rough estimate is based on two factors — a strengthening Ecuadorian economy and a DHS television campaign launched across Latin and South America, warning prospective migrants not to enter or remain in the U.S. illegally. 

“He was very proud of the fact that he’s doing better with his economy. So there’s jobs,” Noem recounted. “But he said, you know, our ads are running in Ecuador. We’re telling people that, if you have family in the United States that are there illegally, it’s time to come home.”

Kristi Noem says “Alligator Alcatraz” to be model for ICE state-run detention centers
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says possible new locations include Arizona, Nebraska and Louisiana.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alligator-alcatraz-model-kristi-noem-homeland-security

Daily Express: Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem explodes over ‘false’ FEMA failure report as flood deaths soar

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The DHS head has been accused of being unprepared to handle the natural disaster, which killed 129 people and left 160 missing, but she denies the claims.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem accused The New York Times of politicizing the deadly Texas floods following the publication of a report that sharply criticized her handling of the catastrophic disaster.

“It’s just false,” [Bimbo #2] Noem said about the damning report on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday. “It’s discouraging that during this time, when we have such a loss of life and so many people’s lives have turned upside down, that people are playing politics with this because the response time was immediate.”

The investigation revealed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which operates under the DHS, left “nearly two-thirds” of thousands of desperate victims without answers when they placed distress calls during the July Fourth weekend deluge in Central Texas, a disaster that has taken 129 lives while 160 remain missing. It came as an extraordinary throwback photo revealed Noem’s face BEFORE plastic surgery – but she still denies any procedures.

[Bimbo #2] Noem, who critics have nicknamed “ICE Barbie” due to her tendency to dress up for immigration-related photo-ops, has come under intense fire for her management of the event, especially regarding the overhauls she has implemented at the massive federal agency.

Numerous detractors, including Texas legislators, have charged her with being ill-equipped to manage the natural disaster, allegations she has forcefully rejected.

The former South Dakota governor terminated “hundreds of contractors at call centers” as part of cost-cutting measures, along with other modifications, that purportedly weakened the federal emergency response to the calamity.

CNN reports that she is facing allegations of hindering search and rescue operations by instituting a new policy requiring her personal approval for any contracts or grants exceeding $100,000.

She has forcefully denied the findings of the report, which she insinuates was driven by hidden political motives.

“I’m not sure where it came from,” [Bimbo #2] Noem told NBC. “The individuals who are giving you information out of FEMA, I’d love to have them put their names behind it because anonymous attacks to politicize the situation is completely wrong.

“The false reporting has been something that is inappropriate and it’s something that I think we need to clear up.”

In an ironic twist, she proceeded to make a political statement herself, asserting that her management of the natural disaster surpassed what the Biden administration could have achieved.

“This response was by far the best response we’ve seen out of FEMA, the best response we’ve seen out of the federal government in many, many years and certainly much better than what we saw under Joe Biden,” she claimed.

Amidst the devastating aftermath of the floods, there has been growing concern that U.S. President Donald Trump might act on his repeated threats to dismantle FEMA. Nonetheless, [Bimbo #2] Noem addressed these worries, arguing that such fears are unfounded.

“The president recognizes that FEMA should not exist in the way that it always has been,” she remarked. “It needs to be redeployed, in a new way, and that’s what we did during this response.”

Addressing concerns, she also noted that other federal resources can be utilized in addition to FEMA.

Kristi “Bimbo #2” Noem is a pathological liar who couldn’t tell the truth if her life depended on it.

Kristi Noem explodes over ‘false’ FEMA failure report as flood deaths soar
The DHS head has been accused of being unprepared to handle the natural disaster, which killed 129 people and left 160 missing, but she denies the claims.

https://www.the-express.com/news/politics/177412/kristi-noem-fema-report-response

Raw Story: ‘Heck of a job’: Kristi Noem hammered in vicious attack from Texas newspaper

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As the horror of the Texas floods continues to reverberate around the state, a major newspaper’s editorial board aimed a brutal attack on the Donald Trump government’s response.

And it saved a particularly vicious putdown for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Starting with praise for the way Texas’ community has pulled together to support itself, the Houston Chronicle quickly showed its admiration did not extend to the nation’s leaders.

“Judging by recent reporting on the Hill Country floods, however, some officials in Washington are more focused on saving cash than helping Texans recover,” the board wrote.

It listed what it saw as failures in the days after a girls’ summer camp was deluged, more than 130 people were declared dead and many more missing.

Among them was the Federal Emergency Management Agency “bizarrely” laying off workers at its disaster call center days after the flood — leaving thousands of affected community members unable to get help.

“Internal emails even show that officials knew they were failing at their task and needed the secretary to extend the call center contracts,” the Chronicle wrote. “We still do not have a decision, waiver or signature from the DHS Secretary,” one FEMA employee wrote in a July 8 email to colleagues.”

The editorial board declared, “Leaving disaster victims on hold isn’t governmental efficiency. It’s heartless.”

But it went on, hitting Noem for reportedly waiting 72 hours to send help because of “self-imposed red tape.”

“Noem has mandated that she personally review and approve expenses over $100,000 — including, say, deploying search-and-rescue teams after a flood that left more than 100 dead,” the board wrote.

‘It’s true Texas has done an admirable job bolstering our own disaster response,” the board continued.

But, it concluded, “Given the compounding scandals, Texans can be forgiven for any flashbacks to FEMA’s disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina.

“ … Even the president’s typically sharp tongue seems to have been replaced by embarrassing Bushisms. Trump’s claim that Noem was “right on the ball” is just his version of “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”

‘Heck of a job’: Kristi Noem hammered in vicious attack from Texas newspaper

https://www.rawstory.com/texas-flood-noem

Alternet: ‘We don’t exist’: Flood victims ‘abandoned’ after Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem didn’t tell them to evacuate

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Morgan and Malcom Speichinger still live in a house that was damaged in a flood one year ago, because they have no better option.

“If we could afford to move, we would,” Morgan said.

Three days of rain last June 20-22 in southeast South Dakota surpassed 17 inches in some locations. Local and state authorities implemented a half-century-old diversion plan to handle record-high water that was flowing down the Big Sioux River toward Sioux City. They built a temporary levee across Interstate 29 that tied in with permanent levees to divert water into McCook Lake.

The water was supposed to flow through the lake and drain toward the nearby Missouri River. Instead, on the night of June 23, it overwhelmed the lake and inundated many of the homes around it. Many residents said the flood surge came suddenly, after they’d received little to no warning.

…

“That’s what we’re preparing for,” [Bimbo #2] Noem said. “If we don’t, then that’s wonderful that they don’t have an impact, but they could see water flowing into McCook Lake.”

After the press conference, [Bimbo #2] Noem flew to a political fundraiser in Tennessee, which is where she was when the flood surge hit McCook Lake and sent people fleeing. During the aftermath, [Bimbo #2] Noem refused to deploy the National Guard to help clean up the area, after she’d sent Guard troops multiple times to help Texas secure its border with Mexico.

Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem — not there when you need her!

‘We don’t exist’: Flood victims ‘abandoned’ after Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem didn’t tell them to evacuate

https://www.alternet.org/dakota-flood

2paragraphs: Gavin Newsom Calls Trump “A Truly Disturbed Person” After “Hatred” Comment

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At the White House, President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter: “Will your recent dust-ups with Governor Newsom impact additional wildfire relief out there? They’ve requested 40 billion.”

The President of the United States replied, “Yeah, maybe,” and said of California Governor Gavin Newsom, “The man’s incompetent. He shouldn’t have fires like that.”

This buffoon is our president?

Gavin Newsom Calls Trump “A Truly Disturbed Person” After “Hatred” Comment
At the White House, President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter: “Will your recent dust-ups with Governor Newsom impact additional wildfire relief out there? They’ve requested 40 billion.”
Gavin Newsom Calls Trump “A Truly Disturbed Person” After “Hatred” Comment

Irish Star: Acting head of FEMA told staff he didn’t know the US had a hurricane season day after it began

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Acting head of FEMA David Richardson reportedly told employees that he didn’t know the US has a hurricane season a day after it officially began as experts sound alarm bells

Duh!!!!!!!!!!

The acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) left staff members alarmed on Monday when he reportedly told them that he was unaware that the US had a hurricane season.

David Richardson, who has been overseeing FEMA since May, made the comments during a briefing with staff members, a day after the 2025 hurricane season officially began, two people who heard the remarks told The New York Times. The staff members said it was unclear whether he was serious or not.

Richardson served in the Marines and worked in the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office before joining FEMA but has no formal disaster-management experience. His comments come after some of the agency’s workers had expressed concerns about his lack of experience in emergency management.

How dumb can they get?

Head of FEMA told staff he didn’t know the US had a hurricane season
Acting head of FEMA David Richardson reportedly told employees that he didn’t know the US has a hurricane season a day after it officially began as experts sound alarm bells

https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/fema-head-staff-hurricane-season-35326926

Miami Herald: GOP Senator Confronts His Party Over Disaster Aid

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Recent tornadoes and severe storms have reportedly caused seven fatalities and over $1.5 billion in damages in Missouri. Sen. Josh Hawley visited the hardest-hit areas in North St. Louis City and called for immediate assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Hawley emphasized the importance of federal aid in supporting recovery efforts in the aftermath of the disaster.

Trump’s administration has proposed shifting disaster response responsibilities to states. FEMA is reportedly undergoing significant changes. This has fueled concerns about delayed or denied aid.

GOP Senator Confronts His Party Over Disaster Aid
More for You

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-senator-confronts-his-party-over-disaster-aid/ss-AA1FSGOd

Rolling Stone: GOP Senator Begs for Disaster Aid as FEMA Snubs Another Red State

Several conservative states have been forced to wait for disaster relief, with lawmakers publicly groveling for federal assistance

Senators grilled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem today over her management of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and how the agency — which President Donald Trump has sought to dismantle — is responding to a series of devastating storms across the southern United States. 

During a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked [Bimbo #2] Noem what she would do about pending federal disaster declaration requests for the state of Missouri — which has been wracked by a series of deadly tornadoes — that have not been approved by the president. Mississippi, which is still recovering from extreme weather events in March, is also waiting for approval on months-old disaster relief declarations. 

“The state has pending three requests for major disaster declarations from earlier storms we’ve lost over a dozen people. Well, actually, if you count the folks we lost just on Friday, we’ve lost almost 20 people now in major storms just in the last two months in Missouri,” Hawley said. 

“Will you commit to helping, for those three major disaster declaration requests that are pending, will you expedite those, Secretary [Bimbo #2] Noem, and get those in front of the president, get those approved?” Hawley asked. “We are desperate for the assistance in Missouri.” 

The response from Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem was more of the customary lip service:

[Bimbo #2] Noem replied that she would make sure the applications were put before Trump as soon as possible, and agreed to expedite individual assistance for qualified Missourians impacted by the recent storms. 

GOP Senator Begs for Disaster Aid as FEMA Snubs Another Red State
Sen. Josh Hawley begged Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to help approve FEMA aid for Missouri, after deadly tornadoes struck the state.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/josh-hawley-begs-trump-administration-fema-aid-missouri-1235343815

Rolling Stone: Trump’s FEMA Denies North Carolina’s Request for Hurricane Helene Aid

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The president repeatedly bashed the Biden administration’s response to the disaster

Late in the 2024 campaign cycle, parts of western North Carolina were devastated by Hurricane Helene. Donald Trump accused former President Joe Biden of abandoning the region and mishandling the response to the crisis. The disaster in North Carolina became the jumping point for a myriad of conspiracies and attacks by Republicans against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FAMA). Trump vowed he would improve disaster responses as president. 

That was then.

This is now:

Now, four months into his administration North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat, has become the latest lawmaker from a disaster-ravaged state who has been forced to beg the president to provide much-needed aid. 

On Friday, Stein published a video on social media informing the public that the Trump administration had denied the state’s request for FEMA to honor a Biden-era commitment to pay for 100 percent of debris removal costs. 

I guess King Donald changed his mind.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/fema-denies-north-carolina-request-hurricane-helene-aid-1235347521

Raw Story: Trump’s FEMA thumbs nose at state that backed him 3 times: ‘Gonna cost a lot’

Under President Donald Trump, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has turned down a request from a storm-ravaged state that narrowly voted for him three times.

Western North Carolina saw massive devastation last year from Hurricane Helene, which killed over 100 people and left the city of Asheville, along with a number of small communities in the Appalachian Mountains, struggling to pick up the pieces after flooding in areas that had hardly ever seen floods before. At the time, Trump supporters spread baseless conspiracy theories that the federal government was ignoring communities there, or only giving aid to Democratic areas, and Trump himself vowed to improve emergency management.

According to Rolling Stone, however, Trump’s administration is now denying an extension of a commitment to pay the full amount for a vital portion of the recovery process.

See above for the Rolling Stone article.

https://www.rawstory.com/fema-north-carolina

Associated Press: Trump administration releases people to shelters it threatened to prosecute for aiding migrants

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The Trump administration has continued releasing people charged with being in the country illegally to nongovernmental shelters along the U.S.-Mexico border after telling those organizations that providing migrants with temporary housing and other aid may violate a law used to prosecute smugglers.Here's The Average Price of a 6-Hour Gutter Upgrade in Minneapolis

Border shelters, which have long provided lodging, meals and transportation to the nearest bus station or airport, were rattled by a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that raised “significant concerns” about potentially illegal activity and demanded detailed information in a wide-ranging investigation. FEMA suggested shelters may have committed felony offenses against bringing people across the border illegally or transporting them within the United States.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continued to ask shelters in Texas and Arizona to house people even after the March 11 letter, putting them in the awkward position of doing something that FEMA appeared to say might be illegal. Both agencies are part of the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump administration releases people to shelters it threatened to prosecute for aiding migrants
The Trump administration has been releasing people charged with being in the country illegally to nongovernmental shelters along the U.S. border with Mexico after telling those organizations that providing migrants with temporary housing and other aid may violate a law used to prosecute smugglers.

https://apnews.com/article/border-shelters-laredo-phoenix-trump-releases-afc2f4d2ca786161e7bb4b03f54033fa