By accepting the #federal #grants & awards, the new documents state, volunteer organizations that help after #disasters must agree to not “operate any program that benefits illegal immigrants or incentivizes illegal #immigration.”

That could put groups that provide #food, #housing, #MentalHealth support & other assistance in disaster-stricken #states in the position of having to verify #aid recipients #legal status before providing assistance, experts said.

This:

"Reports of lawlessness spread, but Honoré said that people confused looting with survival. He criticized how law enforcement responded: "This pre-notion that the poor is going to loot, it's a sad commentary but it's built into our culture," he said. "In some cases, adjacent parishes and municipalities blocked people from coming in because they said these people are going to come and loot our stuff."

“The fact that 180 people signed onto the letter, with a supermajority of them still working in the building, & dozens of those people wanted to attach their real names signifies the severity of the problem,” Jeremy Edwards, a former press secretary for #FEMA who signed the letter, said in an interview. “They are that scared of us being so inadequately unprepared. It speaks a lot to the situation right now.”

At least 2 #FEMA staff members who had been part of the federal response to July’s #Texas #flooding #disaster have now been placed on leave, acc/to an agency employee & another person familiar wi/ the situation.

One employee who manages cases for all #disasters, including TX helped orchestrate the letter.… She has now been placed on leave & pulled off her disaster casework.

They have requested the US Marine Corp to respond because Search and Rescue says they "are not water trained"

ER ICSO CALLED SAR THEY ARE NOT WATER TRAINED // THEY SAID TO CALL THE MARINES // ADV AMR TO GET AS CLOSE TO THE AREA AS THEY CAN AND STAND BY