A viral post claims that FEMA sent hurricane relief funds to New York City earlier this month to pay for housing illegal immigrants in hotels. “Elon just announced … The Biden Administration stole FEMA money that was meant for American hurricane victims and spent it on luxury hotels for illegals in New York!” the post reads.
The claim is false. FEMA did administer payments to New York City for immigration-related costs, including for housing undocumented immigrants in hotels, but the funds are appropriated by Congress separately from FEMA’s disaster relief funds.
On February 10, Elon Musk wrote on X that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had just discovered that FEMA sent $59 million in early February to luxury hotels in New York City to pay for temporary housing for illegal immigrants. “Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order,” Musk wrote. “That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals!” Musk repeated the claim again during a speech at CPAC last week.
Musk is correct that New York City received $59 million from FEMA to support immigration-related costs. However, the money was not meant for disaster relief, and not all of it was to pay for lodging. According to the Associated Press, the New York City mayor’s office “received $81 million in payments from the federal government for immigration-related costs [in early February] in two separate pieces — one of which was about $59 million, with $19 million for direct hotel costs.”
The funding came as part of the Shelter and Services Program, which is administered by FEMA in partnership with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and is separate from FEMA’s disaster relief funding. The Dispatch Fact Check addressed a similar claim about the program last year in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program (SSP) provides grants for entities including state and local governments, nonprofits, and native tribes to provide services for noncitizen immigrants who have been released from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody and are awaiting proceedings in immigration court. These services include the provision of primary services like shelter, food, transportation, and medical care, as well as secondary services including renovations and repairs to facilities, translation services, and administrative costs. The program received $363.8 million of DHS funding in 2023 and $650 million in 2024. Though the SSP is administered by FEMA, the program’s funding actually comes from the budget of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
FEMA’s disaster relief efforts, including its current response to Helene, are funded through its disaster relief fund. The program received more than $20 billion in fiscal year 2024 from the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, and an additional $15.5 billion from the Continuing Appropriations Act.
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