FEMA employee placed on leave after signing letter criticizing Trump leadership
Several FEMA employees have been placed on leave after signing a scathing letter to Congress criticizing President Trump’s leadership.
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Sarah Jo Matthews and her family did their part to fight the wildfires that hit New Mexico. By the time it was over, her business had suffered heavy losses. She is still waiting for payments from the federal government to help her recover.
I was getting frustrated waiting. But what makes matters worse is that while she is in limbo, public servants responsible for distributing benefits to people whose homes and businesses have been destroyed or damaged have already received six-figure payouts.
“They’ll never know how they’re going to pay us,” said Matthews, of Las Vegas, New Mexico. “But they desperately figured out how to pay for it themselves.”
Four years after the worst fires in New Mexico’s history, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is facing questions about how it has managed compensation funds established by Congress to help wildfire victims. Critics want to know how the money was distributed, who received it and whether it was going to those who needed it most.
Those who have filed lawsuits complain that the review process is complex, frustrating and arduous, and that their cases are closed without notice or compensation for their losses.
“Getting money from FEMA is like getting blood from a rock,” Matthews said. “They don’t give us anything.”
On Thursday, February 12, FEMA placed the director in charge of distributing funds and his deputy on leave after it was revealed that other victims had each received six-figure payments through the program while waiting for their claims to be processed.
Jay Mitchell, who works at the FEMA claims office in Santa Fe, and his wife, Lisa, a real estate broker, received $524,000 through the compensation fund last year, according to documents obtained by USA TODAY. The money was to be used to repair smoke and ash damage to the couple’s home in Angel Fire, New Mexico, and to cover Lisa Mitchell’s reported business losses, the documents said.
An independent news outlet called Source New Mexico first reported the payments.
In a brief phone interview with USA TODAY, Lisa Mitchell said she and her husband are being unfairly targeted. “We are being harassed for not doing anything wrong at all,” she said, refusing to answer questions from reporters.
Jay Mitchell’s agent, Jennifer Carvajal, and a woman named Jennifer Sanchez, identified in local reports as his ex-wife, also received $267,000 for smoke and ash cleanup and flooding at a consulting firm in Penderys, New Mexico, records show.
FEMA and Carvajal did not respond to requests for comment. But Paul Judson, assistant secretary at FEMA headquarters in Washington, stressed in an email to staff in the Santa Fe office that the decision to place Mitchell and Carvajal on leave “does not reflect a finding of wrongdoing.”
Judson did not say how long the two men would be on leave or whether they would be paid while on leave. He said Juan Ayala, a senior FEMA official, will oversee the agency’s day-to-day operations.
The criticism of FEMA’s payment processing comes as the agency is already under intense scrutiny in Washington. President Donald Trump’s administration has launched a dramatic overhaul of the agency, which is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s response to natural disasters. President Trump has repeatedly characterized FEMA as ineffective and called for states to play a greater role in disaster response.
Hundreds of jobs at the agency have been cut since President Trump began his second term last year. A lawsuit filed in January by employee unions and public interest groups alleges that the Department of Homeland Security is planning even deeper cuts, with more than 10,000 of the department’s approximately 20,000 employees expected to be laid off in the coming months.
Questions about the agency’s handling of the wildfire victim compensation fund and revelations that Mitchell and Carvajal each received large payouts have infuriated several of the state’s elected leaders as well as families and business owners who are still waiting for their claims to be processed.
“It’s a slap in the face that Mr Mitchell and his wife received compensation,” said Maria Rowe, a community activist who has been helping people with their claims. “He should be ashamed of himself.”
“It’s like poking a stone with a stick.”
Matthews and her family did everything they could to help their friends and neighbors as the flames scorched and scarred everything in its path.
They housed a fire department on the ranch. Her restaurant, Prairie Hill Cafe, provided meals to neighbors whose homes and businesses were destroyed or suffered significant damage. Her father, Oren Matthews, who owns a gravel mining and well drilling company, dispatched water trucks and helped save others’ homes.
Matthews vividly remembers riding his father’s water truck through the thick smoke at night to help his family and other ranchers save their homes.
At one point, a state trooper who was blocking the road with his car stopped them and told them they were not allowed to continue. It was too dangerous, he said. The truck driver, one of the father’s employees, told the officer to move his vehicle through or he would run him over.
“You’re going to have to shoot us to stop us,” he said.
Matthews’ father suffered smoke inhalation while fighting the fire and had to be hospitalized. He now has permanent damage to his lungs. But people like him weren’t willing to watch their homes and ranches go up in flames without a fight.
“We are stewards of the land,” Sarah Jo Matthews said. “They weren’t going to abandon the ranches, the sheep, the horses, the cattle that had been here for generations. They stayed and they fought.”
The destruction caused by the inferno known as the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire was unreal.
From early April to late June 2022, more than 341,417 acres of rugged mountainous terrain burned across three counties in northern New Mexico. This fire started as two separate fires. One was caused by the U.S. Forest Service losing control of a prescribed burn at the base of Hermits Peak in the Pecos Wilderness, and the other was caused by a burning pile remaining from the previous winter reigniting near Gallinas Valley.
A strong wind fanned the flames, and the two fires merged into one. As many as 1,400 structures, including homes, were destroyed. Dozens of other cars were also damaged.
People lost their homes, cars, trucks, businesses, livestock, pets, and even their land. The abandoned building suffered heavy smoke and ash damage. Floods in the weeks and months that followed added to the damage and misery.
To aid recovery, Congress created a special fund in September 2022 that provided $5.4 billion to compensate those who suffered losses. The goal was to set up a simple and quick process for filing claims. Jay Mitchell, who previously worked for the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, was hired in April 2024 to oversee the FEMA claims office, which is responsible for distributing funds.
But those who sought compensation say the claims process was neither quick nor easy.
FEMA required detailed documentation that many mom-and-pop businesses don’t have, including insurance forms and payroll records. Some applicants complained that they spent hours gathering the necessary documents, only to have them resubmitted after FEMA lost them.
As of Feb. 4, FEMA had paid out 23,549 loss certification claims totaling $3.36 billion, according to New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich’s office. It is unclear how many claims are pending. FEMA did not respond to requests for these numbers. But at least 73 people whose homes and businesses were totaled are still waiting for their claims to be processed, according to community leaders. Because users can submit multiple claims, the number of pending claims can be significantly higher.
The Inspector General’s report issued on February 24, 2025, found that 13% of claims already filed were late to respond. Specifically, FEMA had not approved 1,508 of 11,695 valid claims more than six months after they were filed, the report said.
Mr Rowe said at least 20 of the 75 people he has helped with claims so far are still waiting to see how much money they will receive.
One of them is El Rialto Restaurant, a small, family-owned restaurant in Las Vegas, New Mexico that has been in business for more than half a century. Lowe said the business was forced to close for an extended period of time during the fire and its aftermath. The owners filed a claim with FEMA in July 2024 seeking recovery of their losses, but nothing happened.
Lowe also got involved, helping the owners find and submit the necessary documents to FEMA. The “navigator,” or FEMA official assigned to the incident, estimated the restaurant’s loss at $180,000. Lowe thought they were superior, but she still gathered documents to make her case. Lowe said the navigator advised him to sign the paperwork and said the loss estimate could be adjusted later.
Ms Lowe was stunned when she later learned that he had solved the case without telling them. There will be no money in the restaurant. When Lowe complained, the navigator suggested she should appeal and even said he thought she had a good case, she said.
“He just asked me to sign something to end the case,” a disgruntled Lowe said. “He had no intention of allowing us to submit any further documents.”
Matthews said dealing with FEMA has been frustrating. “It’s like poking a rock with a stick and saying, ‘Move! Move! Move!'” she says.
Three members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, Sen. Ben Ray Luján and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, said they have been working with claimants to help them receive the money they are owed.
In November, three members of Congress, all Democrats, sent a letter to FEMA expressing concerns about how the program was being run, citing a lack of communication, trust and urgency by FEMA. They demanded to know how many claims were outstanding, how many were on appeal, and how much of the funds were spent on administrative costs.
FEMA has not yet responded, according to Heinrich’s office.
“It’s a big problem.”
Frustration increased further when it was revealed that Mitchell and Carvajal were receiving six-figure salaries. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and three members of Congress have called for Mitchell’s resignation.
“When a claims representative voluntarily moves to the front of the line and receives a $500,000 payment while thousands of others are still waiting to recover, that’s a big deal,” said Michael Coleman, the governor’s spokesman.
Coleman said if Mitchell refuses to resign, he should be fired immediately.
Democratic state Rep. Joseph Sanchez, whose district in north-central New Mexico was the epicenter of the fires, said residents in the affected areas “deserve far better treatment than they were treated by FEMA.”
“Jay Mitchell go,” he said.
Matthews said families and businesses affected by the fire are hurting but will survive. The new Mexicans are strong, she said. Some live in some of the oldest communities in the country, founded centuries ago.
“Even after the federal government forgets about us, we will still be here, lifting each other up and supporting each other,” Matthews said. “We have survived because of our resilience and close-knit community, and we have no intention of giving up.”
With or without government aid.
Michael Collins writes about the intersection of politics and culture. He is a veteran reporter who has covered the White House and Congress. Follow him on X: @mcollinsNEWS
