New York Metropolis filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration on Friday searching for to wrestle again greater than $80 million beforehand despatched to the town through the Federal Emergency Administration Company to accommodate migrants.
The swimsuit argues that the funds have been beforehand authorised after which paid out by FEMA, solely to be faraway from a metropolis checking account on Feb. 11 with out discover or administrative course of.
The funding had been revoked after Elon Musk claimed that the Division of Authorities Effectivity discovered a $59 million FEMA cost to New York Metropolis that was getting used on luxurious accommodations to accommodate unlawful migrants. Trump later repeated Musk’s declare and argued that “massive fraud” was taking place.
New York Metropolis was awarded two separate grants through the Biden administration – one for $58.6 million and one other for $21.9 million – as the town tried to pay to accommodate migrants, lots of whom have been despatched by Texas officers who have been pissed off with the Biden administration’s dealing with of the inflow of migrants getting into the U.S. by the southern border.
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New York Metropolis filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration on Friday searching for to wrestle again greater than $80 million beforehand despatched to the town through FEMA to accommodate migrants. Mayor Eric Adams left, President Donald Trump, proper, and migrants outdoors the Roosevelt Resort in Manhattan. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photographs, left | Stephen Maturen/Getty Photographs, proper | Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Every day Information through Getty Photographs, inset)
The funds have been made beneath the Shelter and Companies Program (SPP) that Congress appropriated $650 million for final yr to assist native governments reply to the migrant disaster. There are at the moment fewer than 45,000 migrants staying at taxpayer-funded shelters in New York Metropolis, up from a excessive of 69,000 greater than a yr in the past.
Friday’s lawsuit was filed within the U.S. District Court docket for the Southern District of New York by the town’s legislation division, which handles the town’s authorized affairs, in opposition to President Donald Trump, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Emergency Administration Company and the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety.
The lawsuit accuses the federal authorities of violating federal laws and the phrases of the SSP grant, in addition to abusing the federal authorities’s authority and obligations to implement congressionally authorised and funded packages.
Elon Musk, advisor to President Donald Trump, is main the federal government effectivity push. (AP Photographs)
The swimsuit argues that on Feb. 19, the federal authorities belatedly offered the metropolis with a “noncompliance” letter that didn’t determine any noncompliance by the metropolis.
“Rather, it announced ‘concerns,’ which are unfounded and do not comport with how the city has managed the unprecedented crisis brought to its doorstep,” the legislation division stated.
Citing the federal government’s actions as a “money grab,” the legislation division stated the letter was a “mere cover” to masks the federal authorities’s actual goal, which is to completely withhold the funds as a result of it opposes their use on migrants.
The metropolis is seeking to recoup the funds and is searching for a movement for a preliminary and everlasting injunction, and movement for a short lived restraining order (TRO).
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams defended and supported the lawsuit in a collection of posts on X late Friday, writing that the $80 million was authorised, paid for after which rescinded – all whereas the town spent greater than $7 billion of its personal taxpayer cash to sort out the disaster during the last three years.
Mayor Eric Adams stated the town has housed greater than 231,000 migrants through the disaster. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Every day Information through Getty Photographs, left, Fatih Aktas/Anadolu through Getty Photographs, proper.)
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“We are going to work to ensure our city’s residents get every dollar they are owed,” Adams wrote in on submit.
“Without a doubt, our immigration system is broken, but the cost of managing an international humanitarian crisis should not overwhelmingly fall onto one city alone. We have skillfully shouldered the cost of this humanitarian crisis almost entirely on our own, with more than 231,000 people entering our city seeking shelter.”
In the meantime, New York Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander claimed the swimsuit happened after he compelled Adams’ hand on the matter. Adams has come beneath fireplace from New York Democrats over his determination to be extra cooperative with federal immigration businesses in apprehending legal unlawful migrants amid the Justice Division efforts to dismiss corruption expenses in opposition to him.
“After my office discovered that Elon Musk and his DOGE goon squad stole $80 million out of the City’s coffers, we successfully pressured Mayor Adams to allow the City’s lawyers to sue the federal government to get our money back,” Lander stated in an announcement.
“The lawyers who are standing up to President Trump and Eric Adams’ collusion deserve praise and we look forward to Donald Trump returning the money he stole from New York.”
Lander is operating in opposition to Adams within the mayoral election later this yr.
READ THE LAWSUIT BELOW: APP USERS CLICK HERE.
Fox Information’ Landon Mion, Maria Paronich and Jennifer Johnson contributed to this report.
