New York Metropolis filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration on Friday to recoup $80.5 million of congressionally permitted migrant funding the feds quietly seized from town’s coffers final week.
Town’s Legislation Division blasted President Trump for conducting an “illegal cash seize” that snatched Federal Emergency Administration Company funds with none advance discover, in accordance with the go well with filed within the US District Courtroom within the Southern District of New York.
The funds had been dispersed to assist pay again native governments, together with New York Metropolis, for shouldering the huge value of the migrant disaster.
“Certainly, our immigration system is damaged, however the price of managing a world humanitarian disaster shouldn’t overwhelmingly fall onto one metropolis alone,” Mayor Eric Adams stated in a press release Friday night time.
“With little or no assist from the federal authorities, our administration has skillfully managed an unprecedented disaster, which has seen over 231,000 individuals enter our metropolis asking for shelter. The $80 million that FEMA permitted, paid, after which rescinded — after town spent greater than $7 billion within the final three years — is the naked minimal our taxpayers deserve,” he continued.
“And that’s why we’re going to work to make sure our metropolis’s residents get each greenback they’re owed.”
Trump, Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are among the many defendants listed within the go well with.
The sudden withdrawal of FEMA funds from New York Metropolis’s accounts unfolded Feb. 11 — with out Adams’ information — simply days after Elon Musk claimed his Division of Authorities Effectivity found $59 million was being wasted on “luxurious lodges” to accommodate unlawful migrants.
Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander publicly revealed the lacking funds the following morning and accused Trump and the richest man alive of “freeway theft.”
New York Metropolis utilized for and was awarded two separate grants of $58.6 million and $21.9 million below the Biden administration as metropolis officers scrambled for federal assist to pay for the prices shouldered for sheltering migrants who flowed over the US-Mexico border, in accordance with metropolis and federal officers.
The funds had been then made below the Shelter and Providers Program which Congress appropriated $650 million towards in 2024.
The FEMA cash, funded by US Customs and Border Safety, supplied $12.50 an evening reimbursement for every lodge room, metropolis officers stated, including a lot of the 150-odd lodges utilized by town to accommodate migrants aren’t luxurious lodging.
The remainder of the cash would go towards safety, meals and different companies for migrants, officers stated.
“As my workplace found that Elon Musk and his DOGE goon squad stole $80 million out of the Metropolis’s coffers, we efficiently pressured Mayor Adams to permit the Metropolis’s legal professionals to sue the federal authorities to get our a refund,” Lander, who’s operating in opposition to Adams within the June Democratic mayoral main, stated in a press release Friday.
“The legal professionals who’re standing as much as President Trump and Eric Adams’ collusion deserve reward and we sit up for Donald Trump returning the cash he stole from New York.”
The lawsuit in opposition to the commander in chief comes as involved lawmakers name for Adams’ resignation or removing after Trump ordered the Division of Justice to dismiss its federal corruption case in opposition to the mayor.
High federal prosecutor Danielle Sassoon, who abruptly resigned, alleged the dismissal got here with an improper “quid professional quo” that the mayor must do the president’s bidding on immigration.
4 deputy mayors have since resigned from Hizzoner’s administration.
The alleged deal — which Adams’ lawyer and DOJ officers denied — was extensively seen by critics, largely progressives, as maintaining the mayor beholden to Trump, somewhat than New York Metropolis voters.
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to The Put up’s request for remark.
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