FEMA Ignores Storm Victims While Offering $600 Million To Build New Concentration Camps

Both Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have called for FEMA to be completely shut down because they claim that the agency isn’t doing enough to actually help victims of natural disasters. The reason they aren’t doing enough is because staff is being slashed and budgets as being cut, which is “failure by design” for Republicans. But before they close FEMA for good, they’ve decided to take their remaining budget and instead of helping storm victims, they are now offering hundreds of millions of dollars for states to build new concentration camps for migrants. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what’s happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

A common refrain that we have seen from Donald Trump, and of course Christie Nome, who is in charge of the Department of Homeland Security that oversees fema, is that FEMA doesn't work, right? FEMA's a bad program. FEMA doesn't help the people who need help. FEMA doesn't have the money to keep operating in the little bit of money they do have their wasting in their blowing it. And so both Christie Nome and Donald Trump have said, we gotta eliminate fema. Trump specifically, a couple weeks ago, said, at the end of hurricane season, fema, you're gone. But FEMA only sucks because these people have intentionally made it suck. Like FEMA's slow to respond because you made it slow to respond. FEMA doesn't have the people to do this because you fired everybody. FEMA doesn't have any money because you cut the budget. See how that works? It's failure by design.

And FEMA is a vital government program that when run correctly and competently and funded properly, is one of the best government agencies and programs that we have. But even though they keep telling us we don't have money to help these victims, you know, you had all these hurricane victims, by the way, from last year, who voted for Trump because they were told Biden wasn't helping them, even though FEMA was right next to them and FEMA was helping them by the way they were lied to, but they believed the lies even as they're working with fema. So they voted for Trump. Trump came along, pulled FEMA funding away, sent FEMA home. By the way that happened in Lake Lure, North Carolina from Hurricane Helene, Trump said, no, you guys are done. You don't get anymore. Mostly, again, because FEMA has no money, we keep hearing that FEMA doesn't have any money. So it was kind of shocking this week when we got new reports that FEMA has apparently sent out messages to states and cities and municipalities across the country telling them, Hey, we got $600 million available if anybody wants to start building some concentration camps for migrants in your state.

Yeah, you heard that, right? Folks, the government agency that is designed to actually help people in times of disaster is taking the money away from that and instead saying, please go build some concentration camps similar to the Everglades, Auschwitz that we have down there. Here's what Homeland Security said in their memo. This will relieve overcrowding in the us custom and border protection, short term holding facilities further, the US Department of Homeland Securities, immigration Enforcement Plans and compliment US Immigration and Customs Enforcement operational priorities. And it's called the Detention Support Grant Program, which just like the alligator Alcatraz down here in Florida, you build it, you fund it, and then we'll reimburse you or we'll give