Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is under fire from a group of researchers who claim she misrepresented their study to claim that the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Biden administration effectively forced women wildfire survivors in Hawaii to sex traffick themselves, Politico reported.
Noem made the comments at a FEMA review meeting, seeking to contrast the performance of the agency under their predecessor with its performance in the devastating Texas Hill Country flooding, which has left more people dead than are killed on average in the United States from an entire year of hurricanes.
“After the wildfires in Maui, residents voiced concerns that every FEMA employee that they spoke with had different answers,” said Noem. “None of them had conversations that resulted in getting assistance that was helpful or any clarity in their situations. The situation in Lahaina was so bad that one in six survivors were forced to trade sexual favors, other favors for just basic supplies.”
When Politico reached out for citations, DHS "sent a May press release containing a link to the report. The study, conducted by Tagnawa, which describes itself as a 'Filipino feminist disaster response organization' based in Hawaii, surveyed 70 female Filipino fire survivors and found that 16 percent of those surveyed — roughly one in six — engaged in 'survival sex in exchange for basic necessities post-disaster,'" said the report. "The study found that women had 'survival sex' with 'a landlord, an employer, family members, friends and acquaintances.'"
Noem is misleadingly using this study, however, one author says.
“I’m more concerned about just the gross manipulation of using that statistic to do the opposite of what the report calls for,” said Khara Jabola-Carolus, who helped author the report. “Like funding FEMA to improve their response for women’s needs.”
This comes as Noem faces scrutiny for instituting cost-cutting rules that left FEMA unable to deploy urban search-and-rescue crews until three days after the flooding in Central Texas began.