FEMA announces funds for states to detain undocumented migrants

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced more than $ 600 million (446 million pounds sterling) in funding for states and local entities in order to hold undocumented migrants while waiting for transfer to federal facilities.

The new subsidy comes as the Trump administration seeks to carry out mass deportations and redefine the mission and structure of the rescue agency in the event of a disaster.

FEMA says the program will relieve overcrowding in short -term detention facilities and increase the detention capacity in local and state facilities.

The agency had previously administered a shelter and services program that helped states and cities to support non -citizen migrants published by the Ministry of Homeland Security, its parental agency.

However, this program was terminated, and the new subsidy for detentions seemed to be a new iteration of these funds, the BBC William Turner in Connecticut told BBC.

The candidates have until August 8 to request the new subsidy.

FEMA frequently publishes financing possibilities for states, cities and local communities to pay emergency training, preparation and equipment.

But this new subsidy comes as the Trump administration turns to the States to obtain aid to carry out its mass expulsion policies.

Some states such as Florida, led by Republican Governor Ron Desantis, helped the White House achieve its goal. Florida now manages a detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” with the ability to house up to 2,000 people, according to state officials.

The state has converted an airport everything but abandoned in the Everglades to Florida for this purpose. Critics challenged the alleged burial conditions within the establishment, its location would lead to environmental damage.

The Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Security, Kristi Noem, said that “Alligator Alcatraz” will cost around $ 450 million to operate and that the funds would come from the FEMA shelters and services.

During a visit this month, President Donald Trump said that the detention center was “surrounded by kilometers of perfidious swamps and that the only way out is, really, deportation”.

On Friday, at a press conference on Friday, Desantis said that the Trump administration called for states to help mass deportations and launch Florida facilities as a model.

“I will repeat this call, I think it will make a difference,” said Desantis.

He said expulsion flights began to depart from this detention center and that “hundreds” other prisoners on the site in the Everglades were treated for deportation.

FEMA underwent a transformation during the Trump administration, as the president and internal security secretary Kristi Noem launched the idea of closing the agency and transferring its responsibilities to individual states.

The best emergency management officials have left the agency as well as hundreds of staff members who have left in the midst of the Trump administration to considerably reduce the federal workforce.