A new $608 million grant program from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will give states money to build detention centers for people suspected of being in the United States unlawfully.
FEMA was already slated to cover some of the costs for Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” using a Biden-era program meant for helping asylum seekers. The new facility, quickly constructed in a remote part of the Florida Everglades, is expected to run a tab of about $450 million a year.
The new FEMA grant program comes as the Trump administration has increasingly slashed FEMA’s ability to assist disaster response, and as the president has mulled closing the agency altogether. CNN reported Friday that FEMA has proposed cutting nearly $1 billion in grant funding to help local first responders better prepare for disasters and to help bolster cybersecurity.
A webpage for the program also said it would help reduce “overcrowding” in facilities maintained by Customs and Border Patrol.
A Human Rights Watch report released this week charged that three facilities run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Florida faced “extreme overcrowding,” and that many detainees were denied access to medical care.
FEMA has come under scrutiny in the wake of deadly flash floods in Texas, including reports that the federal response was hamstrung by budget cuts or controls designed to limit large expenditures.
Applications for the program are open through August 8. It’s not clear if states beyond Florida are yet planning make pushes to build their own detention centers.
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