By Casey Harper (The Heart Sq.)
The Biden-Harris administration took a tidal wave of criticism this week after U.S. Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas informed reporters that the Federal Emergency Administration Administration didn’t have sufficient funds to cowl the remainder of this hurricane season.
These feedback drew criticism from Republican lawmakers, billionaire Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump as a result of FEMA has spent at the least a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} on resettling migrants within the U.S. since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took workplace.
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“The Biden-Harris Administration’s self-inflicted border crisis has wasted American taxpayer dollars on services for illegal immigrants and is now struggling to help Americans suffering in the wake of natural disasters like Hurricane Helene,” Home Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., informed The Heart Sq. after it reported on the FEMA’s migrant spending.
FEMA is topic to DHS’ authority and below the Biden-Harris administration has been centered on serving to the current inflow of greater than 14 million migrants settle within the U.S.
As The Heart Sq. beforehand reported, FEMA introduced $640 million in new funding for serving to migrants in April of this 12 months, $300 million for “direct funding” to assist immigrants, and $340 million for cities through grants to assist migrants, half of a bigger FEMA give attention to resettling migrants within the U.S. below the Biden-Harris administration. These quantities don’t embody FEMA tax {dollars} spent on migrant relocations earlier in Biden’s time period.
“We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” Mayorkas informed reporters earlier this week, including that “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season” and that they anticipate one other hurricane to hit.
The FEMA money crunch for hurricane victims whereas FEMA has greater than sufficient for migrants grew to become a stark instance of controversial prioritization within the Biden-Harris administration, which continues to take fireplace for its dealing with of the border disaster.
The FEMA instance proved to have political utility amid the continued battle over unlawful immigration in an election 12 months.
“There’s nobody that’s handled a hurricane or storm worse than what they’re doing right now,” Trump stated at a rally Thursday.
“Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants, many of whom should not be in our country,” Trump continued, exaggerating the determine.
The White home has strongly pushed again on Trump’s feedback, calling them “false” and arguing that the funding sources for migrants and catastrophe reduction come from separate sources.
Critics have argued it’s a downside of mission drift at FEMA and prioritizing funding for migrants when catastrophe reduction funding is working low, although Congress appropriates the funding within the first place.
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A White Home spokesperson informed The Heart Sq. that Hurricane Helene victims will likely be nicely taken care of and that there isn’t any hazard of working out of funds to assist with this hurricane restoration.
“FEMA has what it needs for immediate response and recovery efforts,” stated Director of Public Affairs and FEMA spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg. “As FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell has said, she has the full authority to spend against the President’s budget, but we’re not out of hurricane season yet so we need to keep a close eye on it. We may need to go back into immediate needs funding and we will be watching it closely.”
Critics on-line took challenge with the $750 in emergency help for particular person Helene victims touted by Harris, arguing it isn’t sufficient when a lot cash goes elsewhere.
A White Home spokesperson informed The Heart Sq. that the $750 is simply fast help for victims and doesn’t imply they won’t obtain extra money to assist with injury to their properties and different commonplace emergency help.
Critics argued FEMA has turn out to be distracted specializing in noncitizens due to the fallout of an unaddressed border disaster as a substitute of American citizen storm victims.
“President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris must put Americans first and take action now to reverse their open borders policies that are bleeding Americans dry,” Comer informed The Heart Sq..
Syndicated with permission from The Heart Sq..
