NYC lawsuit in opposition to Trump admin targets $80M FEMA clawback

New York Metropolis filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration on Friday looking for to wrestle again greater than $80 million beforehand despatched to town by way of the Federal Emergency Administration Company to accommodate migrants.  

The swimsuit argues that the funds had been beforehand accepted 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The funding had been revoked after Elon Musk claimed that the Division of Authorities Effectivity discovered a $59 million FEMA fee to New York Metropolis that was getting used on luxurious accommodations to accommodate unlawful migrants. Trump later repeated Musk’s declare and argued that “large fraud” was occurring.

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 town tried to pay to accommodate migrants, lots of whom had been despatched by Texas officers who had been annoyed with the Biden administration’s dealing with of the inflow of migrants getting into the U.S. via the southern border.

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New York Metropolis filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration on Friday looking for to wrestle again greater than $80 million beforehand despatched to town by way of FEMA to accommodate migrants. Mayor Eric Adams left, President Donald Trump, proper, and migrants exterior the Roosevelt Resort in Manhattan. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photographs, left | Stephen Maturen/Getty Photographs, proper | Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Each day Information by way of Getty Photographs, inset)

The funds had been made below the Shelter and Providers 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 town’s legislation division, which handles 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 rules and the phrases of the SSP grant, in addition to abusing the federal authorities’s authority and obligations to implement congressionally accepted and funded applications. ­

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 supplied the metropolis with a “noncompliance” letter that didn’t determine any noncompliance by the metropolis. 

“Moderately, it introduced ‘considerations,’ that are unfounded and don’t comport with how the metropolis has managed the unprecedented disaster delivered to its doorstep,” the legislation division mentioned.

Citing the federal government’s actions as a “cash seize,” the legislation division mentioned the letter was a “mere cowl” to masks the federal authorities’s actual objective, 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 looking for a movement for a preliminary and everlasting injunction, and movement for a brief restraining order (TRO).

New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams defended and supported the lawsuit in a sequence of posts on X late Friday, writing that the $80 million was accepted, paid for after which rescinded – all whereas town spent greater than $7 billion of its personal taxpayer cash to deal with the disaster over the past three years.

Mayor Eric Adams mentioned town has housed greater than 231,000 migrants through the disaster. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Each day Information by way of Getty Photographs, left, Fatih Aktas/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs, proper.)

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“We’re going to work to make sure our metropolis’s residents get each greenback they’re owed,” Adams wrote in on publish. 

“Undoubtedly, our immigration system is damaged, however the price of managing a global humanitarian disaster mustn’t overwhelmingly fall onto one metropolis alone. Now we have skillfully shouldered the price of this humanitarian disaster virtually fully on our personal, with greater than 231,000 individuals getting into our metropolis looking for shelter.”

In the meantime, New York Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander claimed the swimsuit took place after he compelled Adams’ hand on the matter. Adams has come below fireplace from New York Democrats over his determination to be extra cooperative with federal immigration companies in apprehending legal unlawful migrants amid the Justice Division efforts to dismiss corruption fees in opposition to him.

“After 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 attorneys to sue the federal authorities to get our a refund,” Lander mentioned in an announcement. 

“The attorneys who’re standing as much as President Trump and Eric Adams’ collusion deserve reward and we look ahead to Donald Trump returning the cash he stole from New York.”

Lander is working 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.