On February 18, 2026, the Trump administration ordered FEMA to halt all travel to disaster areas as part of the ongoing DHS partial shutdown, even though FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund had roughly $7 billion available in separately appropriated money unaffected by the funding lapse. More than 300 disaster responders preparing for upcoming assignments were told to stand down.
An internal DHS directive ordered FEMA to “stop all travel” effective Wednesday, February 19. Any new travel to disaster-affected areas now requires explicit sign-off from DHS leadership. FEMA staffers already in the field on major recovery efforts, including communities still recovering from Hurricane Helene, were told to stay but cannot be relieved or reinforced without DHS approval.
The freeze is particularly troubling because FEMA disaster operations are funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a separate pool of money appropriated by Congress and explicitly not affected by the DHS funding lapse. Legal experts and former FEMA officials said there was no legal requirement to halt disaster deployments. DHS claimed the restrictions were “necessary to comply with federal law,” but critics called it a deliberate choice to weaponize disaster victims as political leverage in the immigration oversight fight.
Americans recovering from hurricanes, floods, and other disasters are being used as bargaining chips in a political standoff over whether ICE agents should have to show their badges.