The Trump administration took away $188 million in government grants that were supposed to pay New York City for housing migrants. They said the money was being used to support illegal immigration, which made the mayor of the city promise to fight the takeback.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency told city officials in a letter sent April 1 and shared with The Associated Press on Tuesday that it was canceling the grants. The letters included information about the roughly $80 million that the agency took out of the city’s bank account in February.
With this new action, the city would have to return an extra $106 million that officials say was used to house and care for refugees.
This is what Mayor Eric Adams said: “My office will also fight the wider grant cancellations.” This comes after his administration sued to get the first $80 million back.
He said in a statement, “Like their previous actions clawing back appropriated funds, these steps are illegal. The New York City Law Department is currently figuring out the best legal action to take to make sure that this money stays in New York City, where it was allocated and belongs.”
They are part of a program that was approved by Congress and is run by FEMA. The goal of the program is to help local governments and nongovernmental groups help migrants by giving them shelter and other social services.
Cameron Hamilton, the acting director of FEMA, wrote to city officials that the grant program goes against the goals of the Trump administration and that “people receiving these services often have no legal status and are in the United States unlawfully.”
At one point, New York City took in thousands of migrants every week. To make room for them, the city rented out hotels and other empty buildings and used them as emergency shelters. Because of a special legal agreement, the city has to give shelter to anyone who asks for it. However, as the city struggled to handle the influx, officials moved to limit the requirement.
The city rented out a building in midtown Manhattan that used to be the famous Roosevelt Hotel. This building was turned into a shelter and an arrival center where migrants could sign up for social services.
Republicans and federal officials were very critical of the city’s use of the Roosevelt. They said the building had become a hub for gang activity and used that reason to take back the $80 million FEMA grant. In its complaint over the money, the city said that the claim was not true.
The mayor said that the city will shut down the Roosevelt and more than 50 other migrant shelters by June because so few people are coming to the city and so many have been moved to other towns and housing.
Adams has been under a lot of political pressure to show that he is not tied to the Trump administration since the DOJ tried to get his federal corruption case thrown out so he could help with Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Last week, a federal judge dropped the charges.
Adams, a Democrat running for reelection as an independent, praised some of the Trump administration’s immigration policies at a news conference on Tuesday. He also said, “We’re going to fight for every penny” when it comes to migrant costs.