FEMA Requests Migrants’ Names and Addresses From San Diego Grant Recipients (May have violated human smuggling laws), by Sofía Mejías-Pascoe

Under Cardinal McElroy, Catholic Charities of San Diego received about $70 million in federal grant funding over two fiscal years to provide services for migrants in San Diego County and another $5.8 million for migrants in Imperial County.

The Trump administration is reviewing San Diego County and organizations awarded federal grants to shelter migrants, suggesting they may have violated human smuggling laws and requesting information on all migrants served through the grant.

The Department of Homeland Security has “significant concerns” the recipients of the grant “may be guilty of encouraging or inducing an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States” in violation of federal criminal law, said Cameron Hamilton, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in a letter sent to a county official on March 11.

In the letter, obtained by inewsource, Hamilton cited parts of United States Code Section 1324, which is commonly used to prosecute human smugglers and carries a potential sentence of years in prison for encouraging someone to illegally enter the U.S., transporting or harboring them.

The letter could foreshadow increasing legal challenges from the Trump administration against groups that sheltered or cared for recently arrived migrants in the U.S. In Trump’s first term, authorities charged humanitarian aid workers who provided food and water to migrants in the desert along the border with smuggling related crimes.

The letter also raises concerns that the migrants served through the FEMA grant could be on the shortlist for Trump’s mass deportation plan.

Hamilton asked that the county respond within 30 days with the names, contact information and any other documents on migrants served through the grant funding and a “descriptive list of specific services provided.”

Continue reading at Inews

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