Elon Musk has announced that the Department of Government Efficiency found that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spent $59 Million last week to house illegal immigrants in New York City.
Late last January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order creating the FEMA Review Council to optimize FEMA’s spending and management and terminate any political biases within the agency.
“The DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants,” said Musk via X. “Spending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order.”
The use of FEMA funds to help house illegal immigrants was standard practice during President Joe Biden’s administration, a policy President Trump and Republicans have sternly criticized.
The Trump campaign published information revealing FEMA had doubled its funding for non-governmental entities providing housing assistance to immigrants apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security.
FEMA upped its financing of such entities by around $300 million, from $363.8 in 2023 to $650 million in 2024.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt condemned the move, claiming it demonstrated Harris’ preference for immigrants over US citizens.
“FEMA has run out of money for the rest of hurricane season because Kamala Harris used the funds for free giveaways to illegal immigrants,” said Leavitt. “This is inexcusable and yet another example of Kamala Harris putting Americans LAST!”
Entities receiving aid include religious charities which provide a wide array of services to immigrants shortly after they cross the border, or otherwise enter, into the US.
Catholic charities obtained a significant portion of 2023’s aid, receiving around $40 million from FEMA.
In this context, Trump’s FEMA review council will make recommendations for changes to optimize disaster relief, including potentially relegating FEMA to “a support agency, providing supplemental Federal assistance, to the States rather than supplanting State control of disaster relief.”
