Posted on Tuesday, February 11, 2025
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by Outside Contributor
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1 Comments
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The Department of Homeland Security is firing four staffers at the Federal Emergency Management Administration for spending $59 million last week to house illegal immigrants in violation of the law.
“Effective immediately, FEMA is terminating the employment of four individuals for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels for migrants,” a spokesperson for DHS told National Review Tuesday.
“Firings include FEMA’s Chief Financial Officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS will not sit idly and allow deep state activists to undermine the will and safety of the American people.”
The terminations come one day after NR learned that DHS was going to swiftly address the FEMA payments and fire the staffers involved for subverting leadership.
“As Secretary Noem said yesterday, we must get rid of FEMA the way it exists today. This is yet another egregious example. Individuals who circumvented leadership and unilaterally made this payment will be fired and held accountable,” a DHS official told National Review Monday.
Billionaire Elon Musk, head of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, said on X that his team discovered FEMA’s spending and will demand that the agency clawback the funds.
“The @DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants. Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order,” Musk posted.
“That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals! A clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds.”
National Review has reached out to FEMA for comment.
President Trump signed an executive order during the first week of his presidency to create a council to review FEMA operations and root out political bias from within the agency. His order followed a scandal involving a Florida-based former FEMA employee who ordered staff to avoid homes with Trump signage in the wake of Hurricane Milton. The fired employee, Marn’i Washington, later alleged that her order was consistent with FEMA policy and approved by higher ranking officials.
House Republicans held a hearing in November to address Washington’s directive and apparent issues FEMA had with providing relief to parts of North Carolina hit hardest by Hurricane Helene. Lawmakers grilled then-FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell on political bias inside FEMA, an issue she insisted was not widespread beyond Washington’s case, and asked her to address specific issues constituents were having with receiving hurricane relief.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) said during the hearing that a whistleblower came forward with another allegation of political bias against FEMA employees involving the home of Trump supporters in Georgia.
Last month, Trump visited Hurricane Helene survivors in North Carolina and strongly criticized FEMA’s response to the natural disaster. Trump floated getting rid of FEMA entirely and sending emergency funds to state governments to handle future recovery efforts.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, responsible for overseeing FEMA, made similar comments Sunday after facing a question about how she would advise Trump to handle FEMA.
“I would say yes get rid of FEMA the way it exists today,” Noem said.
“We still need the resources and the funds and the finances to go to people that have these types of disasters like Hurricane Helene and the fires in California but you need to let the local officials make the decisions on how that is deployed so it can be deployed much quicker and we don’t need the bureaucracy that’s picking and choosing winners,” Noem added.
Trump’s executive order calls for a review council to hold its first meeting within 90 days and prepare a report within 180 days on what changes should be made to FEMA.
Reprinted with permission from National Review by James Lynch.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
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