Federal Emergency Mobilisation Administration

The Federal Emergency Mobilisation Administration (FEMA) is a government agency subordinate to the National Preparedness Department of the United States government. Operating as part of Homeland Security, it is a powerful agency responsible for much of the less-than-stellar activities of the U.S. government.

Background
Operating under the provisions of the Revised Homeland Security Act (2012), endowing it with considerable amount of authority over other government agencies, the Administration is one of the principal governmental agencies involved in keeping the United States together. It achieves it through both legal and illegal means, including counter-insurgency operations and establishing detention camps for seditious citizens.

2027
Six months before the main events of the game, a certain Joseph Manderley uses his position at FEMA to both help enable, and to block any in-depth investigation into, an attack at Sarif Industries' main HQ & research facility in Detroit. He is also involved months later behind the scenes in a 'False Flag' attack (and its aftermath) against one of Sarif Industries' primary production facilities, located at Milwaukee Junction.

Adam Jensen visits a supposedly abandoned warehouse in Highland Park to find the hacker that infiltrated the Sarif network. Upon descending into the lower levels, it turns out that it is, in fact, a top secret FEMA detention camp that is being established to hold American dissidents.

2052
Between 2027 and 2052, the agency was reorganized and renamed as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Former activities of the agency, including the establishment of the network of detention camps throughout the United States and its use of RX 84 to enact martial law have been exposed in tabloids, but the claims have been largely dismissed by the public. "FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has a top-secret plan to detain and quarantine as many as six million Americans at secret “Detention Centers.” Top-secret government documents received by the Midnight Sun from highplaced sources reveal the existence of the plan, codenamed “RX 84.”

According to the documents, the RX 84 plan provides for the “apprehension and detention of citizens deemed to be dangerous to the continuance of public order.” The documents do not give the locations of the camps where detainees are to be taken, but they do reveal that there are at least 11 sites worldwide, with a total capacity of up to 6 million in all camps combined.

The plan kicks in in the event of an “emergency,” which the documents define as “invasion, concerted military strike, civil disruption, natural disaster, pandemic or other condition deemed an imminent threat to the safety and stability of the country.” Once an emergency is declared by FEMA, the police and National Guard are to be mobilized to conduct sweeps through designated areas, rounding up the citizens under the guise of sending them to “aid shelters.” The detained citizens will then be loaded on trucks and trains commandeered from civilian industry, and transported to the Detention Centers. Once at the centers, the detainees would be screened. Those deemed a threat to public security would be imprisoned, and the rest released to return home.

The Midnight Sun turned the documents over to respected Libertarian author and activist Sander Benedict for his review and analysis. In an exclusive interview, Benedict told the Sun that rumors of RX 84 had been circulating for years, but he had never before seen the plan so well documented. Benedict said he believed the documents were authentic, not counterfeits or hoaxes.

“The particularly disturbing aspect to this plan, even above the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of thousands or millions of citizens without charge or trial,” Benedict said, “is that FEMA, specifically FEMA director Walton Simons, apparently has the power to initiate the decision unilaterally, without the authorization of any of the three branches of government.”

Benedict pointed out an allusion to the “Fawkes option,” in the documents. Although the term was not defined, Benedict said “we—that is, those of us concerned about government tyranny—have heard rumors of this plan for years. It’s believed that the Fawkes option involves the apprehension and imprisonment of any members of Congress, the Supreme Court, the administration and even the President himself, should FEMA come to believe them a hindrance to their plans.”

Benedict says that his sources indicate that the plan “encompasses mainly politically active racial and religious, as well as students and intellectuals. Of course dissidents, social misfits and those the government considers “troublemakers” will be specifically targeted as well."

FEMA TO DETAIN SIX MILLION AMERICANS, Midnight Sun

The new FEMA is explicitly tasked with handling responses to natural and domestic disasters within the United States. After a blackmail performed by Bob Page, Walton Simons took over as the director of FEMA in order to further MJ12's goals of a New World Order. This let FEMA gain significant power, taking control of smaller organizations such as UNATCO, and allowed them to control the media and transportation. They are capable of imposing curfews on more populated cities, and have their own private armed forces to help enforce their laws.

Throughout Deus Ex, FEMA takes an unusually aggressive stance against terrorism and rioting in cities such as New York to improve their public image and excuse their extreme actions. By the end of the game, they either kill or force certain individuals within UNATCO to resign if they are too experienced, or otherwise not naive enough to follow MJ12's orders entirely faithfully. Many of MJ12's Troopers, Commandos, Men in Black and Women in Black work for FEMA as a public front for MJ12's normally covert actions. During the events of Deus Ex, Walton Simons may die, depending on the players actions.

After JC Denton's merge with Helios, the world economy Collapses and FEMA probably disintegrates, since it never referred to in 2072.