In 2019, then-President Donald Trump took $155 million from the federal government’s main disaster fund and used it to build immigration facilities near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Now senior officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency are expressing concern that Trump could again redirect disaster resources after he takes office, but on a much larger scale. That could limit FEMA’s ability to help people and communities after major disasters, they say.
“But I am concerned that could happen, or that FEMA is given tasks to do things that are in support of immigration programs, whether it’s deportation or other aspects of immigration,” the agency’s chief of staff, Michael Coen, said in a rare interview.
“It could divert DRF funding from what members of Congress and the American people believe is its intended purpose,” Coen said, referring to FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which helps households and communities survive and rebuild.
