Trump administration fights back in NYC lawsuit over $80M in pulled migrant aid funds

One of the more interesting political alliances that has been forged in the first weeks of Donald Trump's second term in office is that between the president and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Though Adams has recently emerged as a willing partner in Trump's illegal immigration crackdown and was the beneficiary of a DOJ request for dismissal of his corruption case, the mayor has also filed suit against the administration over $80 million in funding previously earmarked for migrant services, and now the White House appears to be fighting back, as Politico reports.

NYC files suit

It was late last month that the Adams administration filed suit against the Trump administration in an effort to reclaim over $80 million in money that was previously challenged to the city by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as Fox News explained at the time.

According to the complaint, the funds had already been approved and disbursed by FEMA but were subsequently pulled from a bank account belonging to the city on Feb. 11, with no process or notice provided in advance.

The funds in question had been revoked in the wake of a finding by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) indicating that the money was going to luxury hotels at which migrants were being housed and that the program under which it occurred was fraught with “massive fraud.”

The city's lawsuit asserts that the federal government under Trump violated federal regulations as well as the terms of the grant under which the funds were approved, and it also alleges an abuse of the federal government's authority and obligation to follow through with appropriations already approved by Congress.

Discussing the lawsuit on X, Adams declared, “We are going to work to ensure our city's residents get every dollar they are owed,” also adding, “Without out doubt, our immigration system is broken, but the cost of managing an international humanitarian crisis should not overwhelmingly fall onto one city alone.”

Administration bites back

The Trump administration is fighting back against Adams' claims, writing in a Friday court filing that it had every right to pull the aforementioned $80 million from the bank account in question.

The government argued that the aid to New York had simply been paused while a probe ensued of whether the funds were indirectly going toward the aid of Tren De Aragua gang activities.

“On its merits, this case involves a question of whether, if a federal grantee providing housing for illegal aliens allows that housing to be taken over by a terrorist organization and used as a base of operations for serious illegal activity, the federal government may pause that grantee's funding until it assures itself that the funds are not being used for or facilitating illegal activity,” government lawyers wrote.

In addition, the government contended that the city has not shown irreparable harm as required for the requested injunctive relief pertaining to potential rescissions of funds in the future, arguing that the payment reversal was only temporary in nature.

It remains to be seen which of these arguments will hold more sway as the case moves forward, but it is clear that all eyes will remain on the interplay between Adams and Trump.