New York City officials stated that the Trump administration has canceled a grant payment of $80 million for migrant shelters.
According to city Comptroller Brad Lander, the Federal Emergency Management Agency withdrew the money on Tuesday at around 4 p.m. According to him, the city was granted the funds during the Biden administration and had received them late last week.
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Lander referred to the withdrawal of funding as “highway robbery” and implied that, based on the conditions of the city’s grant with FEMA, the acts may be unlawful.
The Adams administration is investigating the revocation of the money internally and is considering legal alternatives, according to City Hall spokesman Liz Garcia.
Garcia said that to settle the issue, local authorities had “engaged” the White House over the return of the monies and asked for an urgent meeting.
The confiscation follows Elon Musk’s X post in which he chastised FEMA for paying New York City $59 million last week for “luxury hotels” to host refugees. The expenditure “violated the law,” he added, adding that his Department of Government Efficiency had found the payments but did not explain how.
Four FEMA employees have been dismissed for “circumventing leadership” in sending the payments to New York, according to a statement released Tuesday by a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA’s parent agency. The alleged misbehavior was not described in detail by the agency.
Restoring the monies was not given much leeway by DHS spokesman Tricia McLaughlin in a follow-up statement.
McLaughlin stated, “There will not be a single penny spent that goes against the interest and safety of the American people.”
According to Garcia, hotels only received $19 million of that amount. The remaining funds were used for food, security, other expenses, and other crowded shelters.
According to Garcia, the city has never booked “luxury hotel” rates to accommodate migrants. According to data given to the City Council by City Hall, the city has paid $371 per migrant household per night on average as of Jan. 9.
Acting FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton stated that effective February 9, 2024, the payments to New York City have been “suspended.”
According to municipal authorities, $237 million in FEMA funds has been authorized by Congress to house and care for migrants residing in local shelters. That is a small portion of the $7 billion the city has spent since spring 2022 to accommodate the more than 230,000 migrants who have entered the shelter system.
According to municipal authorities, the city received $200 million in FEMA monies allotted for migrant shelter expenditures before the $80 million installments were canceled on February 11, 2025.
