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Congressional Research Se~
Informing the legislitive debate s~nee 1914
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January 22, 2025
FEMA's Support Role: Migration at the Southwest Border
Introducton
On multiple occasions, Presidents and U.S. Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) Secretaries have tasked the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with
supporting the federal response to migration across the
nation's southwest border. Congress has debated FEMA's
support role in this context.
This In Focus provides a brief explanation of FEMA's
incident management role, and a short history of how the
agency came to support the federal response to periods of
high levels of migrant apprehensions at the southwest
border since 2014. It concludes with additional information
on grant programs that FEMA has administered since 2019,
which have provided funding to state and local
governments, nonprofits, and faith-based organizations
supporting migrants released from DHS custody: the
Emergency Food and Shelter Program-Humanitarian
(EFSP-H), and its successor, the Shelter and Services
Program (SSP).
Why FEMA?
FEMA's role goes beyond disaster response-at times, the
agency is also tasked with providing incident management
and support for non-disaster-related federal response
activities (i.e., those that fall outside the statutory definition
of a major disaster). FEMA's incident management
capabilities for non-Stafford Act incidents can be activated
by the President or requested by the head of a federal
agency or department.
This activity is consistent with Homeland Security
Presidential Directive-5 (HSPD-5), issued by President
George W. Bush in 2003. HSPD-5 directed the
development and adoption of a single, comprehensive
approach to domestic incident management-a National
Incident Management System (NIMS). NIMS provide[s] a
consistent nationwide approach for Federal, State, and local
governments to work effectively and efficiently together to
prepare for, respond to, and recover from domestic
incidents, regardless of cause, size, or complexity. It
articulates that domestic incident response should be guided
by the National Response Framework (NRF), a planning
document that identifies the roles and responsibilities of
federal agencies and departments. While the NRF describes
how the federal government-including FEMA-may
provide funding, resources, and services to support state,
local, territorial, and tribal governments in responding to
presidentially declared emergencies and major disasters
under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency
Assistance Act (Stafford Act; P.L. 93-288, as amended; 42
U.S.C. §§5121 et seq.), it can also be used during non-
Stafford Act responses.
FEMA Support at the Southwest Border
Although the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) is the lead federal agency for the
resettlement of refugees and the care and custody of
unaccompanied children, FEMA, at the direction of the
President, has taken on various supporting roles at the
southwest border.
2014
In 2014, FEMA's role initially involved assisting with the
identification of resources that the faith-based community
could provide to support arriving migrants. FEMA was later
asked to take on a coordinating role to increase the federal
government's capacity to house and process
unaccompanied children pursuant to its NRF authorities and
interagency agreements.
On May 12, 2014, then-DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson
declared a Level IV Condition of Readiness within DHS,
which enabled the department to use all of its resources to
respond to the influx of unaccompanied child migrants and
rise of other unauthorized migration at the southwest
border. Subsequently, on June 2, 2014, President Obama
directed a broader government-wide response, and the
President and DHS Secretary Johnson directed FEMA
Administrator Craig Fugate to coordinate said response, at
which point FEMA became the lead coordinating agency.
In his role as Federal Coordinating Officer, Administrator
Fugate mobilized a Unified Coordination Group that
included DHS and all of its components, as well as the U.S.
Departments of HHS, Defense, Justice, and State, and the
U.S. General Services Administration, to support the
agencies with lead roles in addressing the immediate needs
of unaccompanied children: U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), and HHS. FEMA also published an
interagency Incident Support Plan, outlining the strategic
and operational goals and objectives of all responding
agencies.
DHS Secretary Johnson noted that migrant apprehensions
declined in FY2015 and the Obama Administration cited its
work with the governments of Mexico, Guatemala,
Honduras, and El Salvador, including efforts to remove and
repatriate migrants, process and screen refugees, increase
border security, and stop criminal groups and illegal
activities, including human smuggling and trafficking.
Congress held hearings to evaluate the federal response,
including FEMA's involvement.
2019
In 2019, FEMA's role at the southwest border was limited
to administering grant funding for state and local
governments and nonprofit organizations.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govesfl0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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