PROVIDENCE— When Rhode Island asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help building out the state’s vaccination efforts on Feb. 23, numerous federal agencies, not just FEMA, deployed workers to the Ocean State.
Two months later, personnel from at least 16 different federal agencies have helped administer vaccines and fulfill support staff roles at the state’s two mass vaccination sites supported by FEMA: the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence and the former Benny’s store at 1400 West Main Road in Middletown.
But while workers inside both clinics wear vests with “FEMA” patches, they could be employees from the U.S. Secret Service, Department of Justice, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Labor, Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, Department of Health and Human Services, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Forestry Service, Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Transportation Security Administration, or even the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a Globe investigation has found.
“We pretty much put everybody in the same FEMA vest so I can find them,” said Emily Martuscello, a FEMA supervisor who oversees both the Providence and Middletown clinics. The Dunkin Donuts Center, she explained, “is a big arena and I’m always losing everyone. And because everybody is here deployed under a FEMA mission, we gave everybody these FEMA vests.”
The medical staff administering the vaccines are not wearing FEMA vests. Neither are National Guardsman, who are in uniform.
Martuscello said many of the USDA’s bio-lab technicians are serving as vaccine handlers in Rhode Island. Paramedics and EMTs with the US Forest Service are helping administer the vaccine. The medical oversight is provided by the US Public Health Service.
The presence of workers from ICE and DHS has sparked concerns in a state where many residents are undocumented. About 19 percent of Rhode Island’s immigrant population, or 3 percent of the state’s total population, is undocumented, according to Pew Research Center. There were 30,000 undocumented immigrants in Rhode Island in 2016, the latest year for which data was available.
Martuscello said that while ICE employees have been helping with the vaccine rollout in Rhode Island, none of them are immigration enforcement agents or essential employees. DHS, which oversees agencies that include ICE, said in a statement Feb. 1 that the agency and its Federal government partners fully support equal access to the COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine distribution sites for undocumented immigrants, and there will be no immigration enforcement activity near vaccine sites.
“It is a moral and public health imperative to ensure that all individuals residing in the United States have access to the vaccine. DHS encourages all individuals, regardless of immigration status, to receive the COVID-19 vaccine once eligible under local distribution guidelines,” read the statement. “ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will not conduct enforcement operations at or near vaccine distribution sites or clinics.”
Rhode Island was the first state in New England to request help from FEMA. DHS’ “Surge Capacity Force,” or SCF, a post-Hurricane Katrina emergency management program, is activated by the DHS Secretary at the request of FEMA; it authorizes DHS to create a group of federal employees to augment a catastrophic disaster response. The program calls for deployable non-FEMA employees under DHS to be part of the Force that can be activated when an event “exceeds the capacity of FEMA’s existing disaster workforce to respond.”
Since the state had the vaccination locations and the necessary support equipment, it just needed additional, qualified personnel to staff the vaccination sites, said Robert Dulski, a spokesman for the Department of Administration.
As of April 28, 2021, the SCF has deployed federal employees to Delaware, New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Maine, Alabama, and Missouri.
Tom McCarthy, executive director of Rhode Island’s COVID-19 Response Team, told the Globe that the decision was made to request FEMA when the state was looking to build five mass vaccination sites and there was “no clear line of sight” on how they could be staffed with the Rhode Island National Guard alone. The federal employees who are deployed to Rhode Island cycle through every 30 days or so, he said.
“We’ve had quite a few people cycle in and out,” said McCarthy. He said FEMA will be transitioning out of Rhode Island “in the next month or so.”
When asked what the protocol would be if a resident was suspected of being undocumented, McCarthy said, “These vaccination sites are a safe place for anyone to go to and get vaccinated. We’re not checking IDs. We’re not asking for insurance. That is not going to be something that anybody is ever going to have to consider coming into one of our vaccination sites. It is purely for people to get vaccinated.”
Leo Skinner, a spokesman for FEMA Region 1, said 90 FEMA staff members are “currently on the ground” in the Ocean State, including “local” hires (who are not necessarily from Rhode Island or the region), FEMA regional staff, and FEMA Corps. Late Tuesday, he told the Globe that there are also 97 other staff members in the mass vaccination clinics from federal agencies right now, and that other agencies “may have sent staff as well.” The number changes as personnel cycles through.
A different FEMA spokesman previously told the Globe to contact each federal agency individually to request the number of employees sent to Rhode Island. Multiple agencies told the Globe to reach out to DHS. A DHS spokesperson, who previously told the Globe that they would provide a list of agencies and the number of employees from each sent to Rhode Island, later told the Globe to contact FEMA.
Martuscello, the FEMA supervisor, said employees from several federal agencies volunteered to be deployed to Rhode Island, are non-essential workers, and were approved by their respective agencies to leave their normal duties to help on the frontlines of the country’s effort to vaccinate Americans. In many cases, she said, these federal workers do not know in advance where they will be sent. They could stay in their deployed location for less than a week, or for more than a month.
“All the people in these two sites are volunteers. They wanted to be part of this, and they came from all over the country with one mission in mind: to end the pandemic,” said Martuscello.
Joe Sowers, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said that as of Monday, 43 USCIS volunteer employees have been deployed to vaccination centers in Rhode Island. None of them are residents of Rhode Island.
Larry Moore, a spokesman for the Department of Agriculture, said the USDA has deployed 1,200 staff to assist at FEMA-led vaccination sites nationwide to date, with 410 staff currently deployed. He said 135 people have been sent to vaccination sites in Rhode Island, including 70 currently on the ground in Providence and Middletown. He said none currently serving at vaccination sites are Rhode Island residents.
“Everybody is agency agnostic. When everyone signs up for this mission, it doesn’t matter your rank or title, everybody is agnostic to their home duties, their home agency. They carry none of that here with them, including their uniform,” said Martuscello. “They all put on that new uniform, that FEMA uniform of humanitarian relief, of being here to help people.”
Of the presence of ICE employees, she said: “There is absolutely no enforcement at these centers. Absolutely anybody can get COVID-19. It doesn’t matter documentation status. Everyone needs the vaccine, and that should not be a barrier to anyone coming here.”
She said the only reason that a Rhode Islander may be asked for any type of identification is to spell that person’s name correctly on their vaccine card. She said if someone does not have an I.D., they can spell their name out loud.
“And if you want to go by ‘grandma,’ that’s fine. Don’t worry, we’re still going to get you your vaccine,” said Martuscello.
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.