WASHINGTON — A robust Republican Home committee chairman fired off a letter Wednesday to New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams demanding a “full accounting” of the greater than $81 million in taxpayer funding doled out final 12 months to shelter metropolis migrants, which can have concerned “unlawful” stays in “luxurious motels.”
Home Homeland Safety Committee Chairman Mark Inexperienced (R-Tenn.) advised Adams his panel “is anxious” that the funding was “accredited beneath the Biden-Harris administration with out correct oversight of the recipients and their packages,” based on a duplicate of the missive obtained completely by The Publish.
“For 4 years, the Biden-Harris administration refused to implement the legislation and launched hundreds of thousands of inadequately vetted and inadmissible aliens into our communities,” Inexperienced added in a press release.
“After creating this disaster, the Biden-Harris administration’s solely ‘answer’ was to funnel hundreds of thousands of taxpayer {dollars} to nonprofits, with minimal oversight, additional incentivizing and facilitating unlawful immigration throughout the nation.”
The Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA) funding — each an preliminary tranche of $59,302,125 and a second tranche of $22,169,838 due from the company’s Shelter and Providers Program (SSP) — was frozen final month, resulting in a authorized problem by NYC officers.
In Feb. 11 filings following a grievance towards the Workplace of Administration and Funds (OMB) directive pausing the handout, FEMA performing administrator Cameron Hamilton claimed the administration had “important considerations that the funding goes to entities engaged in or facilitating unlawful actions.”
4 FEMA staff — together with the company’s chief monetary officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist — had been fired the identical day “for circumventing management to unilaterally make egregious funds for luxurious NYC motels for migrants,” based on DHS officers.
Ten days later, NYC officers additionally filed a lawsuit towards members of the Trump administration, accusing the feds of an “illegal cash seize” with none advance discover.
The plaintiffs disputed that migrants stayed in “luxurious” lodgings on the American taxpayers’ dime — however acknowledged that $19 million went towards sheltering the brand new arrivals, with some being put up within the glitzy Row Resort and Watson Resort.
The greater than $81.4 million in FEMA funding was to offer reimbursements for different immigration-related bills, the officers stated.
In whole, the Biden administration accredited $650 million for the Massive Apple’s shelter program in fiscal 12 months 2024.
The migrant disaster has price the town practically $7 billion during the last three years, based on Adams administration officers.
Inexperienced additionally despatched letters to different sanctuary metropolis leaders this week — together with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass — to request comparable documentation about their alleged misuse of $25.7 million and $21.8 million, respectively, from the identical FEMA program.
“Sanctuary cities,” the Tennessean stated in a press release, “supercharged the chaos by turning into havens for individuals who selected to interrupt our legal guidelines –– all on the expense of the American taxpayer.”
“To conduct correct oversight of this border boondoggle and to root out the earlier administration’s waste of taxpayer {dollars}, Homeland Republicans are demanding a full accounting of using SSP funds by these sanctuary cities,” he added.
Inexperienced, together with subcommittee chairmen Josh Breechen (R-Ark.) and Dale Robust (R-Ala.), requested for all information associated to the FEMA program funding relationship between Oct. 1, 2023, and Jan. 19, 2025, to be handed over by April 9.
Reps for Adams, Johnson and Bass didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
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