The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been using some of its resources to aid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. One top House Democrat has asked Congress’ watchdog to help investigate if the government is running afoul of strict rules designed to keep FEMA focused on disaster response.
Arizona Rep. Greg Stanton, the top House Democrat on the subcommittee overseeing FEMA, has asked the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ official auditor, to help his committee investigate whether the Trump administration is violating the law by diverting people and funds toward immigration enforcement, according to letters reviewed exclusively by NOTUS. He has also asked the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General to open an investigation.
The GAO can take requests from any member of Congress, but the agency prioritizes requests from chairs and ranking members. Stanton is the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure’s emergency management subcommittee. This is the first time he has requested the GAO for help with an investigation.
“This is how strongly I feel about this,” he told NOTUS. “FEMA is not a play toy. It’s a serious agency doing serious work that is needed by the American people.”
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Unlike most other federal subagencies, FEMA is under strict, statutory obligations from Congress to maintain independence from its parent agency, DHS. The rules restricting how FEMA resources can be used were put in place after the disastrous federal response to Hurricane Katrina to ensure that the agency would be fully focused on disaster response in the future.
Since Trump took office, FEMA has been wrapped up in the Trump administration’s whole-of-government approach to enacting its aggressive deportation agenda, as NOTUS previously reported. The agency has devoted both senior leadership and FEMA human resources staffers to a recruitment campaign on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“If the Congress has written a law and it’s signed by the President, it has to be obeyed. It’s not an optional thing,” Stanton said.
Stanton’s letters say that employees at the Department of Defense were asked in March to apply for ICE’s volunteer recruitment program using a FEMA portal. The USAJobs listing for the volunteer detail gives a FEMA recruitment email address as the point of contact.. FEMA staff have been paid overtime to work on immigration recruitment, and agency staff have coordinated recruitment events, NOTUS previously reported.
Stanton sent five letters to all of the relevant oversight officials and bodies — including the DHS secretary, the Inspector General’s office, and the acting head of FEMA — asking for answers about FEMA redirecting some of its employees to work on recruitment for ICE.
“It is critical that when it comes to preparation for hurricane season, it’s all hands on deck,” Stanton said. “And instead, DHS is moving these FEMA employees all around to different assignments that are unrelated to the work at FEMA. That’s both wrong and likely illegal.”
DHS declined to comment.
“DHS responds to official correspondence through official channels,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.
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