FEMA paid NYC hotels $59,000,000 last week to house illegal aliens, says DOGE

Elon Musk disclosed on Monday that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) discovered a $59 million FEMA payment from the previous week to accommodate illegal aliens in "luxury hotels in New York City."

The payment was made subsequent to the Biden administration's assertion that FEMA was not allocating funds to assist unlawful aliens, as Breitbart News reported.

"Its just categorically false. It is not true" was the response made by former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in October when questioned about the claim by reporters.

The Department of Homeland Security, under President Joe Biden, denied Republican claims that FEMA lacked funds to aid hurricane victims in North Carolina.

Agency Details

The agency had sufficient funds for relief efforts and the FEMA Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which was authorized in late 2022 to address the migrant crisis.

Musk, the leader of the DOGE initiative to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, stated that the FEMA payment was unlawful and that a "clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds."

The @DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants.

Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order. That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals!

From the White House

The executive order, which was issued by President Donald Trump, aims to enhance FEMA's "efficacy, priorities, and competence," which includes assessing whether the agency's bureaucracy in disaster response ultimately undermines its capacity to respond effectively.

“[I]t has lost mission focus, diverting limited staff and resources to support missions beyond its scope and authority, spending well over a billion dollars to welcome illegal aliens,” the order added.

On January 24, Trump considered the possibility of eliminating FEMA and instead allowing the federal government to provide funds to the states for disaster relief.

“I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA,” Trump said.

“I think, frankly, FEMA is not good.”