NEW YORK — Officials said Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency took back more than $80 million from New York City. This is the latest in a fight between the Trump administration and the country’s biggest city over money to house migrants.
A federal judge had already said he wouldn’t stop FEMA from returning the money.
This week, the government fought a $59 million grant. Now, City Comptroller Brad Lander said that the grant and another award for $21.5 million have been taken away. After midnight, the stolen money was found. Lander said that no one in his office knew the federal government could access the city’s bank account.
Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, said that city officials had talked to the White House about getting the money back. They are also trying to get an emergency meeting with FEMA and are looking into their legal options. Adams said that he would talk about it with Tom Homan, who is President Trump’s border czar when they meet in New York on Thursday.
It’s the first big test for Adams’ relationship with Trump’s team since Monday when the U.S. Justice Department told federal prosecutors in Manhattan to drop corruption charges against the mayor. A top administration official said they wanted Adams to be free to help Trump’s immigration agenda.
The grants were filed for and given out while Democratic President Joe Biden was in office, but the city said they weren’t given out until last week.
Soon after, Elon Musk, a Trump aide, warned of $59 million in payments, writing on X that his “Department of Government Efficiency” had found that the money was being used to pay for migrants to stay in “luxury hotels.” Musk didn’t show any proof to back up what he said.
New York City has rented out several cheap hotels and other empty buildings over the last two years and turned them into homes for migrants.
In court papers filed Tuesday, FEMA’s acting chief said that the money was being taken back because of worries about “illegal activities” at a hotel.
He said he had never seen someone who was “authorized to come into your bank accounts and take it back because of shifting political winds.” Lander asked if the move was legal.
Lander, who is running against Adams in the Democratic primary in June, called it “the first critical test of whether we still have independent leadership at City Hall.”
During a briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the government didn’t think it was necessary to pay for hotels for migrants in the city while FEMA dealt with more expensive tragedies in other places.
In a post on X, Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, said, “I have taken back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists gave to NYC migrant hotels.”
On Wednesday, a federal judge said that the government can keep trying to keep the city from getting the FEMA money. In Rhode Island, U.S. District Judge John McConnell said that money was not subject to an order that was still in place and was meant to stop the administration from stopping federal funding.
The government fired four workers on Tuesday because the Department of Homeland Security said they didn’t follow the rules when making the deals. Payments like these have been made for years through a scheme that helps pay for the costs of caring for a lot of people who are moving.
On Tuesday, the government fired four workers who were accused by the Department of Homeland Security of doing business without permission. Payments like these have been made for years through a scheme that helps pay for the costs of caring for a lot of people who are moving.
Families with kids live in most of the old buildings that the city rents out. By most travelers’ terms, none of them would be called “luxury.”
The building that used to be the Roosevelt Hotel was rented by the city as an intake center for refugees looking for city services in 2023. This was after it closed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That hotel had a fancy past, but in the years before it closed, it was a cheap place for people to stay in the city.
New York City law says that everyone who needs it must have a place to stay. At that time, the normal system for housing the homeless was overflowing with new people. The hotel is now both a place where travelers must go to get help and a short-term home for hundreds of families who can only stay for 60 days.
Republicans are upset about the Shelter and Services Program, which gets money from Congress and is run by FEMA. They say it takes money away from people who have been affected by storms or floods, which is not true.
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