For the past six months, many federal agencies and grant recipients have been told their previously appropriated funding is “under review,” and therefore inaccessible. For example, President Trump began dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) by freezing all foreign aid and calling for a review on any spending done by the agency. From that moment on, USAID was disintegrated, and any decision-making on foreign assistance was rolled over to the U.S. Department of State.
Now, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) appears to be poised to suffer the same fate. And even though Trump’s original executive order pausing federal funding pending review was supposed to exempt programs that “provide direct benefits to individuals,” this primary agency for emergency relief to people in need has been seized up—even as it is gladly handing over money for the construction of what some experts have called migrant concentration camps.
FEMA has long been the target of criticism about its ability to effectively respond to major emergencies, such as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Trump has consistently scrutinized the agency, and during his second term, unveiled plans to phase out its operations by 2026. As a result, several FEMA grant programs have seen their funding frozen or cut altogether. One of the biggest casualties of this funding freeze is FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP), which has been in limbo for months.
Since its establishment in 1983, EFSP has provided over $6.6 billion in funding to 14,000 local private and public organizations that supply Americans at risk of experiencing homelessness with food, shelter, rental, and utility assistance. Under the current-year budget, $117 million in funding was allocated for EFSP, which was to remain available until September 30, 2025.
Many local governments and nonprofit organizations rely significantly on the grants allocated by EFSP to administer services such as food distribution, temporary housing arrangements, utility payments to avoid service cutoffs, rental or mortgage assistance to prevent evictions, and transportation costs. This can be a massive help to individuals, especially in a time marked by a cost-of-living and homelessness crisis.
In April, Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) led a letter signed by 47 House Democrats to then-FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, demanding reinstatement of the previously issued funding. “EFSP plays a critical role in combatting hunger and homelessness in our country, working to lift children and families out of desperate circumstances,” the Democrats wrote. “We demand that you take immediate action to ensure that full funding for EFSP, as appropriated by Congress, resumes without further disruption.” The letter also asked for any examples of “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the EFSP program, which was the stated rationale for the review.
According to a representative from Landsman’s office, the congressman has yet to receive a reply from the current acting head of FEMA or Noem. (Hamilton was fired in May.)
OVER THE COURSE OF JUST EIGHT DAYS IN JUNE, the United States’ newest immigration detention facility was erected in a remote area of Florida’s Everglades marked by its unforgiving conditions. The so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” concentration camp was supposed to cost $450 million per year, but now the facility is projected to cost more than $600 million. Although Florida is taking on the up-front costs, the state is expected to seek reimbursement from the federal government, specifically through FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program (SSP).
This construction comes at a time when money is being withheld from initiatives that provide support to the country’s most vulnerable citizens, a cause that theoretically aligns with Trump’s promise of putting the well-being of Americans first. The only funds, therefore, being distributed for emergency food and shelter are being used to temporarily hold migrants in miserable conditions before rendering them to other countries.
As a result of this resetting of priorities, families and individuals seeking assistance from local organizations will face increased difficulty, leading to higher rates of homelessness and food insecurity across the country. This reality will occur against a backdrop of the federal government’s aggressive immigration enforcement strategy.
SSP is a relatively new FEMA program. It was established in 2023, and was born out of EFSP’s humanitarian system of services known as EFSP-H. Under the Biden administration, SSP funds were used to support local organizations and governments that supply emergency care (like temporary shelter and food) to immigrants who arrived in their respective communities. These providers were allowed to seek reimbursement from SSP to handle the costs needed to maintain their facilities and programs, ensuring that individuals and families who entered the U.S. could temporarily avoid homelessness.
Families and individuals seeking assistance from local organizations will face increased difficulty, leading to higher rates of homelessness and food insecurity across the country.
However, under the Trump administration, SSP funds will be used for a very different aim: to detain people encountered by DHS, and eventually deport them. A FEMA spokesperson told the Prospect: “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens … These new facilities will in large part be funded by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which the Biden Administration used as a piggy bank to spend hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars to house illegal aliens.”
For fiscal year 2024, SSP was allocated $650 million in funding from Congress. But this April, FEMA terminated all SSP grants, with Hamilton sending identical termination letters to all recipients: “The Department [DHS], consistent with President Trump’s direction, is focused on advancing the essential mission of enforcing immigration laws and securing the border. Consequently, grant programs that support, or have the potential to support, illegal immigration through funding illegal activities or support for illegal aliens that is not consistent with DHS’s enforcement focus do not effectuate the agency’s current priorities.” DHS even intimated that it would ask for refunds of some of the funding.
FEMA’s decision to pull all SSP grants led Chicago, Denver, and Pima County, Arizona, to file suit against DHS in May, in an attempt to halt the process. The complaint argued that DHS had overridden the authority of Congress, which violated the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act, since FEMA “failed to offer a reasoned basis for their actions.” On July 12, District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly issued a temporary restraining order against DHS, which halted the agency from clawing back SSP funds. But just three days later, Kennelly rescinded the restraining order, allowing FEMA to continue its dismantling efforts.
Although SSP funds will fund the first year of operating the Florida concentration camp, the program will most likely no longer exist in FY2026, raising questions about where DHS will find the money to sustain the facility. In a document sent to the Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Office of Management and Budget shared Trump’s recommendations on discretionary funding levels for FY2026, which included eliminating SSP. “Democrat-run cities and States use these grants to undermine the rule of law by transporting and sheltering illegal migrants, weakening the United States from within, taking resources away from American citizens, and promoting crime and decay in America’s cities.” SSP grants are not solely allocated to Democrat-run cities and blue states—organizations in Texas, for example, received the most funding out of all recipients, to assist migrants crossing the border.
It is quite possible that Florida will seek more than $450 million in reimbursement for Alligator Alcatraz from FEMA, especially when an inevitable hurricane impacts the facility. With $45 billion in funding for building new detention centers included in the “Big Beautiful Bill,” DHS has the capacity to cover any additional costs incurred while operating Alligator Alcatraz, as well as build other concentration camps.
Ultimately, FEMA spending for emergency housing now goes to imprisoning migrants rather than getting Americans off the streets.