The Department of Homeland Security, under the leadership of Secretary Kristin Noem, has rolled out a new policy prohibiting aid and volunteer groups from assisting undocumented immigrants, and under threat of having federal grant funding pulled.
“There is no historical context for this,” said Scott Robinson, Arizona State University professor, FEMA historian and emergency management expert, speaking with The Washington Post on Wednesday. “The notion that the federal government would use these operations for surveillance is entirely new territory.”
The new policy was first reported on by The Post on Wednesday after the outlet conducted a series of interviews with FEMA employees. The policy would require aid groups, including groups that help with disaster recovery, to sign a pledge that they would not assist undocumented immigrants in any aid efforts, lest they become ineligible for federal funding.
That pledge, experts told The Washington Post, would not only deny undocumented immigrants potentially life-saving care following a disaster, but hamper aid groups with the task of verifying the citizenship of every person they come in contact with.
“This is likely to have a chilling effect on any undocumented person,” Robinson added.
A number of aid groups that assist in disaster recovery often work in tandem with FEMA's Disaster Case Management Program. That could all come to a halt, however, in the wake of DHS’s new policy, one that some disaster experts label as a free speech issue.
“We see this as a Free Exercise issue under our First Amendment rights,” said Peter Gudaitis, executive director of New York Disaster Interfaith Services, speaking with The Washington Post.
“First, the federal government has never attempted to tell the nonprofit sector who we can and cannot serve. Further, as a faith-based organization we have the right to determine who we serve.”