The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s primary role as they deploy to the border will be getting kids out of detention centers as quickly as possible, the agency's former chief said in an interview with Spectrum News.

What You Need To Know

  • As FEMA deploys to the border to help address a surge in unaccompanied minors, the agency's primary role will be to get those children out of harsh border facilities more quickly

  • FEMA will serve as an intermediary to help coordinate between border officials and HHS, which oversees shelters for migrant children, former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate told Spectrum News

  • The agency will provide bed space, staff, medical screenings and meals to help transfer kids out of border detention and get them closer to a shelter or a permanent caretaker

  • The Department of Homeland Security officially requested FEMA's help over the weekend as part of a "government-wide effort" to address the border surge

Craig Fugate – who served as the FEMA Administrator for nearly eight years under President Obama and oversaw the agency’s mission at the border in 2014 – said FEMA will serve as a “coordinating element” between border officials and the Department and Health and Human Services, which oversees the shelters meant to house migrant children for a longer period of time.

The U.S. is facing a surge in unaccompanied migrant children who cross the border, including more than 9,500 last month. Thousands of kids are being held in harsh border facilities for longer than the three days allowed by U.S. law, according to a recent report from CBS News.

The response from FEMA – an agency meant to respond to disasters – will include additional bed space, medical screenings, meals and other intermediate services that aim to get children out of border patrol custody and closer to an HHS shelter and eventually into the care of a family member or other sponsor.

“What we found ourselves [doing] at FEMA was trying to speed up that process and look for where the bottlenecks were, and look at what we could do to streamline that,” Fugate said, referring to the deployment he oversaw in 2014. “The first goal is always going to be the children.”

On Saturday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas officially requested FEMA’s assistance for a 90-day period as part of a “government-wide effort” to address the border surge. The agency helped in a similar way in 2014 and provided funding in 2019.

Already, the U.S. plans to open a convention center in Dallas with FEMA’s help, which will house up to 3,000 immigrant teens for the next few months, The Associated Press reported Monday.

Former Administrator Fugate said the agency has been preparing for a border response for weeks, even before the official request from DHS, according to his contacts at the agency. He also said that FEMA was equipped to send staff to the border despite other pandemic-related assignments, such as mass vaccination sites.

“FEMA does have a deep bench,” Fugate said. “Because they have done this before, they're actually using fewer people than we did probably in 2014. Because in 2014, we were just learning so much.”

On Monday afternoon, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) led a group of Republican lawmakers to a section of the border near El Paso, Texas, blaming President Biden’s policies for the recent surge.

“It’s more than a crisis. This is a human heartbreak,” McCarthy said in a press conference at the border. “This crisis is created by the presidential policies of this administration.”

For now, the Biden administration’s message to migrants is that “now is not the time to come” to the US, and border officers are still turning away the majority of people at the border under a pandemic-related order. Unaccompanied minors are the one exception.

Biden officials themselves have refrained from calling the situation at the border a “crisis” or “disaster,” instead labeling it a “challenge.”

But FEMA’s deployment is an acknowledgment of the heightened need, though Fugate noted it’s not been declared an official “emergency” by the federal government.

“The role here [is] FEMA assisting other agencies,” Fugate said. “Ultimately, those agencies will reimburse FEMA for any costs.”

The injection of the agency’s rapid resources will aim to address overcrowded border patrol facilities, where lawyers told CBS News that kids take turns sleeping, miss showers and often go days without sunlight.

“A Border Patrol facility is no place for a child,” DHS Secretary Mayorkas said in the statement detailing his request to FEMA.

In the meantime, the Biden administration is working to increase capacity in the shelters overseen by HHS, which are meant to house children for a longer period of time. New shelters are expected to open in the coming weeks.

In 2014, FEMA aided border officials throughout the summer until HHS increased its shelter capacity, Fugate said.

"These are children, and they have needs," said the former FEMA chief. "And we may be a nation of laws, but we need to be a compassionate nation."

In another effort to speed up processing, last week the administration ended a requirement that HHS share information with ICE about potential caretakers for migrant children, which officials said prevented sponsors from coming forward for fear of being deported.

Biden officials said they’re exploring ways to address the surge of migrants from Central America who are seeking asylum in the US, including by addressing the root causes of migration. More than 100,000 people were intercepted at the border last month. 

“We're committed to creating a humane and orderly asylum system, but this will take time. No one should be taking the dangerous journey now,” a senior administration official reiterated Friday.