4 FEMA workers fired over payments made to NYC to shelter migrants

Arya Sundaram

Published Feb 11, 2025

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In a Jan. 9, 2024, file photo, migrants and their families check into a processing center at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Arya Sundaram

Published Feb 11, 2025

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Tuesday it had fired four employees over grant payments to New York City for housing migrants.

A spokesperson for FEMA’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement the individuals were “circumventing leadership” to make the reimbursement payments for “luxury hotels” for migrants in New York City. The agency did not provide details of the alleged misconduct.

City Hall spokesperson Liz Garcia said the payments were properly appropriated by Congress under the Biden administration in order to help the city house migrants, who began arriving in large numbers in 2022.

She added that the city has never paid luxury hotel rates for housing migrants, who have been put up in a variety of accommodations, including tent housing, congregate shelters and hotels. The city is required to shelter all individuals who request housing, under a decades-old court mandate.

New York City has received $200 million in FEMA funding to house and care for migrants living in city shelters, according to Garcia, $81 million of which was received last week. That funding has been used as well to cover food, security and other costs, she said.

Of the $200 million, only $67 million has been used for hotels, while the rest of the money was for other congregate shelters, food, security and other costs.

In the early days of the migrant influx that began in spring 2022, city officials started housing asylum-seeker families in hotels due to a lack of space in the traditional shelter system. The city has begun closing several of those sites and other ad-hoc facilities as fewer migrants enter the shelter system.

New York City has spent more than $7 billion, largely on housing costs, to care for more than 230,000 migrants that have funneled through the shelter system since the influx began. As of Jan. 9, the city has spent an average of $371 per migrant household per night, according to data provided by City Hall to the City Council.

The homeland security spokesperson said that those fired include FEMA’s chief financial officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist.

The firings come after Elon Musk criticized FEMA in a post on X for making a $59 million payment to New York City last week for “luxury hotels” to house migrants. He said his Department of Government Efficiency had discovered the payments and that sending the money "violated the law," though he did not specify how.

Garcia said only $19 million of that payment was for hotels. The rest of the money was for other congregate shelters, food, security and other costs.

Cameron Hamilton, the acting FEMA administrator, said in a post on X that the payments to New York City had been "suspended” as of Sunday. However, Garcia said the city had not received notice that FEMA funds had been revoked, and City Hall did not receive a letter requesting the return of any funds.

On top of the $200 million New York City has already received, Congress had appropriated another $37 million in FEMA funding for New York City's migrant shelter costs. Garcia said the city has not applied for reimbursements to receive that funding.

Tagged

Asylum Seekers

housing

Race And Justice Unit