Fema announces funds for states to detain undocumented migrants

Fema headquarters in Washington, DC

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has announced more than $600m (£446m) in funding for states and local entities to detain undocumented migrants while they await transfer to federal facilities.

The new grant comes as the Trump administration seeks to carry out mass deportations and redefine the disaster relief agency's mission and structure.

Fema says the programme will relieve overcrowding at short-term holding facilities and increase detention capacity in local and state facilities.

The agency had previously administered a shelter and services programme that helped states and cities support non-citizen migrants released by the Department of Homeland Security, its parent agency.

That programme was terminated, however, and the new grant for detentions appeared to be a new iteration of those funds, William Turner, Connecticut's state emergency management director, told the BBC.

Applicants have until 8 August to apply for the new grant.

Fema frequently publishes funding opportunities for states, cities, and local communities to pay for emergency training, preparedness, and equipment.

But this new grant comes as the Trump administration turns to states for assistance in carrying out its mass deportation policies.

Some states like Florida, led by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, have assisted the White House in carrying out its goal. Florida now runs a detention facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz" with the capacity to house up to 2,000 people, according to state officials.

The state converted an all-but-abandoned airport in Florida's Everglades for the purpose. Critics have challenged the alleged inhumane conditions inside the facility its location would lead to environmental harm.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said "Alligator Alcatraz" will cost about $450m to operate and that funds would come from FEMA's prior shelter and services programme.

During a visit this month, President Donald Trump said the detention centre was "surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is, really, deportation".

At a press conference on Friday, DeSantis said the Trump administration had called on states to assist with the mass deportations and cast the Florida facility as a model.

"I would reiterate that call, I think it will make a difference," DeSantis said.

He said deportation flights have begun to depart from that detention facility and that "hundreds" of other detainees on the site in the Everglades have been processed for deportation.

Fema has undergone a transformation during the Trump administration, as the president and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have floated the idea of shuttering the agency and transferring its responsibilities to individual states.

Top emergency management officials have departed the agency along with hundreds of staff who left amid the Trump administration's effort to drastically reduce the federal workforce.