As he arrived in Augusta, Georgia, to survey Hurricane Helene’s devastation, former President Donald Trump stated the Biden-Harris administration’s spending on immigrants has left the Federal Emergency Administration Company broke.
“Properly, for one factor, $1 billion was stolen from FEMA to make use of it for unlawful migrants,” Trump said Oct. 4. He added, “And FEMA is now busted. They don’t have any cash.”
He continued, “FEMA has not accomplished the job, which means the federal authorities, Kamala and Joe, haven’t accomplished the job clearly. They’ve $1 billion, $1 billion with a ‘B,’ lacking that’s supposed for use for hurricanes and issues like that and so they don’t have any cash.”
Trump used his go to to the hurricane-ravaged battleground state as a chance to assault his opponent, Kamala Harris, and argue that she cares extra about immigrants within the U.S. illegally than Individuals.
He has repeated variations of that declare since Oct. 3:
- “Kamala spent all her FEMA cash, billions of {dollars}, on housing for unlawful migrants, lots of whom shouldn’t be in our nation,” he stated at an Oct. 3 campaign rally in Saginaw, Michigan.
- “We’re lacking $1 billion that they gave to migrants coming into our nation,” he stated in an Oct. 4 town hall in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
- “The GREAT individuals of North Carolina are being stood up by Harris and Biden, who’re giving virtually all the FEMA cash to Unlawful Migrants,” he wrote Oct. 7 on Truth Social. He added: “NORTH CAROLINA HAS BEEN VIRTUALLY ABANDONED BY KAMALA!!!”
Listed here are the information: Present FEMA funding for migrants doesn’t come at catastrophe reduction’s expense. Neither of FEMA’s two applications for migrants makes use of cash from the company’s Catastrophe Aid Fund, which is primarily used after pure disasters. Congress funds the migrant and catastrophe reduction applications individually. And Trump’s administration, not Biden’s, shifted FEMA funding — together with cash from the Catastrophe Aid Fund — to handle immigration.
When contacted for remark, the Trump marketing campaign pointed to spending by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which supplies cash to state and native governments and nonprofit organizations that present migrants with temporary shelter, food and transportation. Trump arrived on the $1 billion determine by combining the fiscal year 2023 and 2024 budgets for the Shelter and Companies Program.
“FEMA has been spending lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on the transportation and shelter of unlawful immigrants,” Trump marketing campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt stated.
That’s completely different from Trump’s claims, which distort the information.
FEMA’s rumor response website says no cash from the Catastrophe Aid Fund was diverted for immigration. The White Home issued a similar statement.
It’s inaccurate to explain the $1 billion as “stolen,” stated Joshua Sewell, a federal price range skilled on the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Frequent Sense.
Congress — not the president — decides how a lot cash authorities applications obtain. The Biden-Harris administration requested the cash from Congress, and Congress granted it to FEMA for the Shelter and Companies program.
“It’s positively not stealing,” Sewell stated. “It’s in an appropriations invoice.”
FEMA is predicted to face a deficit throughout the present fiscal 12 months that began Oct. 1, however the company is just not out of cash. And Congress can put aside extra money, because it has accomplished almost yearly since 2017, Sewell stated.
Directing federal cash to assist states and cities deal with immigrant influxes didn’t begin with the Biden-Harris administration. With Congress deadlocked for many years over immigration payments, state and local politicians in purple and blue areas have demanded that the federal authorities step up and supply cash to assist present fundamental providers to new immigrants.
Beginning in 2019, as unlawful immigration ticked up throughout Trump’s administration, Congress gave FEMA funding to broaden its Emergency Meals and Shelter Program, which beforehand had been used just for individuals going through homelessness and starvation, to incorporate migrant help providers. FEMA gave federal cash to native and state governments and nonprofit organizations that present providers to immigrants whom officers have launched into the U.S. to await courtroom proceedings.
Neither that program nor the one which changed it was, or is, funded with cash promised to FEMA’s catastrophe reduction work. And the Biden administration didn’t switch cash from FEMA’s Catastrophe Aid Fund to both program, the White Home stated in an Oct. 5 memo.
Sewell reiterated this level: “The Catastrophe Aid Fund has nothing to do with any migrant help account as a result of all that spending is from separate funds.”
In 2023, Congress directed U.S. Customs and Border Safety and FEMA to create the Shelter and Companies Program for migrants, eradicating immigration grants from the Emergency Meals and Shelter Program. The Shelter and Companies Program makes use of cash Congress has given Customs and Border Safety, and is run by FEMA.
In fiscal year 2024, which began October 2023 and ended September 2024, Congress directed U.S. Customs and Border Safety to present FEMA $650 million for the Shelter and Companies Program. From fiscal years 2021 to 2024, Congress has put aside about $1.5 billion mixed for each the Shelter and Companies and Emergency Meals and Shelter applications. The cash is used for meals, shelter and medical care.
Statements from Trump and different Republicans saying FEMA is out of cash stem from Oct. 2 comments to journalists by Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as he traveled to South Carolina to survey devastation attributable to Hurricane Helene.
However Mayorkas didn’t say FEMA was out of cash.
When a reporter requested Mayorkas about FEMA funding, he stated, “We’re assembly the quick wants with the cash that we’ve got. We predict one other hurricane hitting. FEMA doesn’t have the funds to make it by way of the (hurricane) season,” which lasts from June by way of November.
Mayorkas stated the Biden-Harris administration has requested additional funding from Congress.
Congress has accredited extra cash for FEMA’s Catastrophe Aid Fund almost yearly since 2017, totaling almost $170 billion, Sewell stated. This cash is on high of the $100 billion Congress has put aside in annual laws.
On Sept. 26, Congress added $20 billion to the catastrophe fund as a part of a stopgap invoice to fund the federal government by way of Dec. 20.
Even earlier than Hurricane Helene made landfall, the Catastrophe Aid Fund was headed towards a deficit. A mid-September report FEMA published earlier than Hurricane Helene projected a deficit beginning in February 2025. That was additionally earlier than Hurricane Milton.
When Trump was president, his administration shifted FEMA funding, together with cash from the Catastrophe Aid Fund, to handle immigration.
In 2019, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was “reprogramming” some funds Congress had put aside.The division stated it will switch $271 million to immigration efforts. That included about $155 million from FEMA’s Catastrophe Aid Fund base price range.
PolitiFact present in 2019 that the funding shift wouldn’t deplete FEMA’s out there funding for disaster-hit areas; the federal authorities has a process to supply catastrophe reduction. However we wrote it may have some impact, relying on the storm season’s severity.
Trump stated “$1 billion was stolen from FEMA to make use of it for unlawful migrants. … And FEMA is now busted. They don’t have any cash.”
This can be a gross mischaracterization.
The Biden-Harris administration didn’t “steal” cash from FEMA. Congress — not the president — decides how a lot cash authorities applications obtain.
Congress accredited FEMA funding to present grants to state and native governments and nonprofit organizations for immigrant providers. This system’s funding comes from Customs and Border Safety, and is separate from FEMA’s Catastrophe Aid Fund that’s used to answer pure disasters.
The cash for immigrants doesn’t come at storm victims’ expense. The federal authorities has spent lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on hurricane restoration and can proceed to take action.
Moreover, FEMA is just not out of cash. The company’s Catastrophe Aid Fund is predicted to face a deficit, however that’s unrelated to this system for immigrants. Congress can step in and supply extra funding for FEMA, because it has accomplished almost yearly since 2017.
We price this assertion Pants on Fireplace!
This truth verify was initially published by PolitiFact, which is a part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this truth verify here.
