Employees Worried About More Layoffs at FEMA

More than 200 employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been fired as part of the Trump Administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal workforce.

And more cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency may be coming.

On Tuesday, State Sen. Sasha Rene Perez said Federal Emergency Management Agency employees believe mass layoffs are coming to the disaster relief department this week.

“Yesterday FEMA employees shared with me that there’s fear Trump & Musk will be doing mass layoffs at FEMA this week,” Perez posted on X. “As the Senator representing Altadena & Pasadena, I can’t emphasize enough how terribly this would impact the victims of the #Palisades & #Eaton Fires.”

The Eaton Fire ignited on January 7, burning over 14,000 acres across Altadena and Pasadena. The disaster claimed at least 17 civilian lives and left thousands displaced, creating an urgent need for rapid but careful debris removal.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has helped lead the way in the recovery of the Eaton Fire and has opened a Disaster Recovery Center in Altadena to assist Californians who experienced damage to their primary home, personal property loss, or have disaster-caused emergency needs related to the wildfires.

Earlier this month, four Federal Emergency Management Agency officials were fired after Elon Musk claimed the disaster response agency spent nearly $60 million housing migrants in what he alleged were “luxury” New York City hotels. The Trump administration had targeted the Federal Emergency Management Agency for these actions.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said, “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are making sweeping cuts and reform across the federal government.” It’s the latest mass purge of federal employees by Trump’s administration, just days after thousands of probationary employees were also fired.