Right now, as climate disasters batter communities across the country—from historic flooding in Texas to record-breaking wildfires out West—the federal government is quietly pulling emergency response staff away from FEMA and reassigning them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

These aren’t voluntary transfers. FEMA employees—many of them newly reinstated after past political purges—have been given just seven days to accept their reassignment to ICE or risk losing their jobs. That’s not only coercive, it’s dangerous.

FEMA has already lost about 2,000 employees due to previous cuts. Now, more than 100 additional staff have been reassigned to support ICE’s urgent push to hire 10,000 new deportation agents. These FEMA workers are being tasked with vetting and processing ICE recruits instead of preparing for hurricanes, floods, and wildfires that are already displacing American families.

The Department of Homeland Security claims these transfers won’t affect FEMA’s disaster readiness. But multiple former and current FEMA officials warn otherwise. FEMA’s HR and security teams are essential for hiring and deploying local staff during a crisis. They help process contracts, run security checks, and coordinate emergency field operations. Stripping away that capacity in the middle of an active hurricane season is a direct threat to public safety.

This is not just a staffing issue—it’s a dangerous misuse of federal disaster resources for political purposes. FEMA exists to protect lives during emergencies, not to become a pipeline for mass deportation efforts.

We call on the Department of Homeland Security and the Trump administration to immediately reverse the forced reassignments of FEMA staff to ICE. Prioritize disaster response over deportation quotas. Protect workers’ rights and restore FEMA’s full capacity before the next disaster strikes.