WASHINGTON — A powerful Republican House committee chairman sent a letter to New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday, demanding a “full accounting” of the more than $81 million in taxpayer funding given out last year to shelter city migrants, which may have included “illegal” stays in “luxury hotels.”
According to a copy of the missive obtained exclusively by The Post, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) informed Adams that his panel “is concerned” that the funding was “approved under the Biden-Harris administration without proper oversight of the recipients and their programs.”
“For four years, the Biden-Harris administration refused to enforce the law and released millions of inadequately vetted and inadmissible aliens into our communities,” Green told reporters.
“After creating this crisis, the Biden-Harris administration’s only ‘solution’ was to funnel millions of taxpayer dollars to nonprofits, with minimal oversight, further incentivizing and facilitating illegal immigration across the country.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding — an initial tranche of $59,302,125 and a second tranche of $22,169,838 owed by the agency’s Shelter and Services Program (SSP) — was frozen last month, prompting a legal challenge by NYC officials.
In February 11 filings following a complaint against the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directive pausing the handout, FEMA acting administrator Cameron Hamilton claimed the administration had “significant concerns that the funding is going to entities engaged in or facilitating illegal activities.”
Four FEMA employees, including the agency’s chief financial officer, two program analysts, and a grant specialist, were fired on the same day “for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels for migrants,” according to DHS officials.
Ten days later, NYC officials filed a lawsuit against members of the Trump administration, accusing the government of a “unlawful money grab” with no prior notice.
The plaintiffs denied that migrants stayed in “luxury” lodgings paid for by American taxpayers, but they did admit that $19 million was spent on sheltering new arrivals, some of whom were housed in the glitzy Row Hotel and Watson Hotel.
“Let’s be clear: New York City only used FEMA funding to help shelter and service thousands of migrants entering our shelter system every week, after being left largely on our own to deal with a national humanitarian crisis,” Liz Garcia, the mayor’s deputy press secretary, told the Post.
“The $80 million that FEMA approved, paid, and then rescinded is the bare minimum that our taxpayers deserve, and we will work tirelessly to ensure that our city’s residents receive every penny they are owed. We’re reviewing the letter.”
In total, the Biden administration has approved $650 million for the Big Apple’s shelter program in fiscal year 2024.
The migrant crisis has cost the city nearly $7 billion in the last three years, according to Adams administration officials.
Green also sent letters to other sanctuary city leaders this week, including Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, requesting similar documentation regarding their alleged misuse of $25.7 million and $21.8 million from the same FEMA program.
“Sanctuary cities,” said the Tennessean in a statement, “supercharged the chaos by becoming havens for those who chose to break our laws — all at the expense of the American taxpayer.”
“To conduct proper oversight of this border boondoggle and to root out the previous administration’s waste of taxpayer dollars, Homeland Republicans are demanding a full accounting of the use of SSP funds by these sanctuary cities,” according to him.
Green, along with subcommittee chairmen Josh Breechen (R-Okla.) and Dale Strong (R-Ala.), requested that all records related to FEMA program funding from Oct. 1, 2023, to Jan. 19, 2025, be turned over by April 9.
Johnson and Bass’s representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
