(The Center Square) – The Biden-Harris administration took a tidal wave of criticism this week after U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters that the Federal Emergency Management Administration did not have enough funds to cover the rest of this hurricane season.
Those comments drew criticism from Republican lawmakers, billionaire Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump because FEMA has spent at least hundreds of millions of dollars on resettling migrants in the U.S. since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office.
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s self-inflicted border crisis has wasted American taxpayer dollars on services for illegal immigrants and is now struggling to help Americans suffering in the wake of natural disasters like Hurricane Helene,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told The Center Square after it reported on the FEMA’s migrant spending.
FEMA is subject to DHS’ authority and under the Biden-Harris administration has been focused on helping the recent influx of more than 14 million migrants settle in the U.S.
As The Center Square previously reported, FEMA announced $640 million in new funding for helping migrants in April of this year, $300 million for “direct funding” to help immigrants, and $340 million for cities via grants to help migrants, part of a larger FEMA focus on resettling migrants in the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration. These amounts don’t include FEMA tax dollars spent on migrant relocations earlier in Biden’s term.
“We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” Mayorkas told reporters earlier this week, adding that “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season” and that they expect another hurricane to hit.
The FEMA cash crunch for hurricane victims while FEMA has more than enough for migrants became a stark example of controversial prioritization in the Biden-Harris administration, which continues to take fire for its handling of the border crisis.
The FEMA example proved to have political utility amid the ongoing battle over illegal immigration in an election year.
“There’s nobody that’s handled a hurricane or storm worse than what they’re doing right now,” Trump said at a rally Thursday.
“Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants, many of whom should not be in our country,” Trump continued, exaggerating the figure.
The White house has strongly pushed back on Trump’s comments, calling them “false” and arguing that the funding sources for migrants and disaster relief come from separate sources.
Critics have argued it is a problem of mission drift at FEMA and prioritizing funding for migrants when disaster relief funding is running low, though Congress appropriates the funding in the first place.
A White House spokesperson told The Center Square that Hurricane Helene victims will be well taken care of and that there is no danger of running out of funds to help with this hurricane recovery.
“FEMA has what it needs for immediate response and recovery efforts,” said Director of Public Affairs and FEMA spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg. “As FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell has said, she has the full authority to spend against the President’s budget, but we’re not out of hurricane season yet so we need to keep a close eye on it. We may need to go back into immediate needs funding and we will be watching it closely.”
Critics online took issue with the $750 in emergency assistance for individual Helene victims touted by Harris, arguing it is not enough when so much money is going elsewhere.
A White House spokesperson told The Center Square that the $750 is just immediate assistance for victims and does not mean they will not receive more money to help with damage to their homes and other standard emergency assistance.
Critics argued FEMA has become distracted focusing on noncitizens because of the fallout of an unaddressed border crisis instead of American citizen storm victims.
“President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris must put Americans first and take action now to reverse their open borders policies that are bleeding Americans dry,” Comer told The Center Square.