Ahead of hurricane season, the Trump administration appears to have diverted nearly $10 million from the FEMA budget to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pay for immigration detention centers, according to newly released documents.
The transfer of funds earmarked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency was called a “scandal” by Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who publicized the documents during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Tuesday evening.
“It means that just as hurricane season is starting … the administration is working hard to find funds for additional detention camps,” he said.
The 39-page document shows that the Department of Homeland Security requested about $9.8 million going to FEMA efforts labeled “Preparedness and Protection” and “Response and Recovery.”
Instead, the cash was funneled to ICE’s coffers to be used for its “Transportation and Removal Program” and “Detention Beds,” the Washington Post reported.
Without the transfer, “ICE will not be able to fulfill its adult detention requirements in FY 2018,” according to the document, meaning they wouldn’t be able to deport people violating immigration laws and would have to release “any new book-ins and illegal border violators.”
The limitation “would pose significant risk to public safety and national security by permitting known offenders to remain at large,” they wrote.
A DHS spokesperson acknowledged the funds had been redirected but said the transfer didn’t jeopardize FEMA’s relief efforts.
At a Wednesday morning briefing, FEMA Administrator Jeff Byard said the agency has “plenty of resources both monetary, staff and commodities” to respond to approaching Hurricane Florence, which is set to reach the Carolinas on Thursday evening.
“We have plenty of resources to respond, we have plenty of resources to recover, that has not impacted our situation whatsoever,” he said.
A former Homeland Security official told the Washington Post the money would have been used for plans, logistics, supply-chain management and after-action reports to improve FEMA’s response on previous seasons.
It’s unclear when the funds were transferred. The document mentions Fiscal Year 2018 but doesn’t include an exact date. A Senate aide told the paper it appears to have been written in June, the first month of the Atlantic hurricane season, sent to Congress at the end of the month and approved between July and September.
This comes as the country braces for the potentially devastating Hurricane Florence.
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