(The Epoch Times)—The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has launched a new program that will provide more than $608 million in funding for states to detain illegal immigrants in state-run facilities.
The grant program, dubbed the “Detention Support Grant Program,” is intended to ease overcrowding in short-term holding facilities operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to FEMA documents posted on a government website.
It aims to help expand the detention capacity of states and local governments as the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement efforts targeting illegal immigrants, the documents stated.
FEMA said the program will provide states with grants to offset the cost of holding illegal immigrants in state-run detention facilities until they are transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
“Recipients and subrecipients may use grant funds for the costs of sheltering aliens in a detained environment,” the agency stated.
The grant program will open for applications until Aug. 8, according to the documents.
The grant program came as the administration has intensified efforts to detain and deport illegal immigrants in the country. President Donald Trump said last month that he had directed his administration to put “every resource possible” to carry out what he called the “largest mass deportation operation of illegal aliens in history.”
FEMA, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, is expected to cover the cost of building the new Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention facility in Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis said on July 25 that his office will seek FEMA reimbursement for the detention center.
The Alligator Alcatraz facility in the Everglades has the capacity to hold up to 3,000 illegal immigrants. DeSantis said the first deportation flights carrying 100 illegal immigrants departed from the facility to other countries this week.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on July 12 that her office was in talks with five Republican-led states on the construction of detention centers modeled after Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz.
“We’ve had several other states that are actually using Alligator Alcatraz as a model for how they can partner with us as well,” she told reporters. Noem declined to name the states.
FEMA is tasked with overseeing the federal government’s response to disasters. But the agency has come under criticism for its handling of the Texas floods, which left 137 people dead earlier this month.
Trump has signaled that he may consider phasing out the agency and reducing federal disaster assistance to states after this year’s hurricane season ends, leaving disaster response to the states.
“We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it down to the state level. … We’re moving it back to the states,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office on June 10.
Reuters and Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.