The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) continues to be lambasted for its slow “DMV-like” response to Hurricane Helene.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made the shocking announcement that the hurricane relief fund may soon dry up.
Since then, Republicans have argued that FEMA money earmarked for illegal migrant housing should go to Americans in need, while Democrats say the money has never been used for hurricane relief and is not transferable.
While FEMA is repeatedly criticized for its Helene response, another massive storm is barreling toward Florida’s west coast and even more destruction is expected.
While funds for FEMA’s non-civilian Shelter and Service Program – which has received more than $1 billion since 2022 – remain unavailable to Americans.
People clean up flood debris from Monteath’s Auto Service in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene’s flooding along the Swannanoa River on October 4, 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina. More than 220 people died as a result of the storm. The cleanup will cost tens of billions of dollars
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“The Biden-Harris administration has effectively turned FEMA into an agency that helps with resettlement and helps address illegal immigration,” Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said on Fox News on Monday.
“That will fundamentally distract from their core mission: helping American citizens in times of need,” the spokesperson said Ohio Senator continued. “It’s incompetence of the highest order.”
Over the past two years, FEMA has received more than $1 billion from taxpayers to specifically support illegal immigrants with housing and humanitarian services.
The budget for the program to provide shelter to non-citizens has almost doubled from $363.8 million in 2023 to $650 million in 2024.
Additionally, $780 million in FEMAs Since 2022, an emergency food and shelter program has been allocated to non-citizens.
But the White House on Monday with Press Sec pushed back on the claims regarding the FEMA money for non-citizens. Karine Jean-Pierre says: ‘No money is taken from the responses’ to migrants.
Although some Republicans say this isn’t true.
“Republicans do NOT lie about FEMA funds going to migrants. It is well documented and has been that way for years. In fact, here are just a few of the receipts,” Texas Republican Wesley Hunt posted on X alongside clips showing reporters talking about FEMA resources for migrants.
“This administration seems to think that if they deny reality hard enough, the American people won’t notice,” another Texas Republican, Dan Crenshaw, wrote on X. “But FEMA has spent hundreds of millions on its ‘Shelter and Services Program’. ‘ for migrants this year – and it’s on FEMA’s own website.’
Republicans, however, say money for migrants isn’t the only problem at FEMA.
People watch for flood damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on October 3, 2024 in Bat Cave, North Carolina. More than 220 people died as a result of the storm
Members of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force use a search dog to search a flood-damaged area in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene along the Swannanoa River on October 4, 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina
Migrants from Nepal, India and Bangladesh are waiting for a ride from Border Patrol after illegally entering the US
“You have a lot of different bureaucratic fiefdoms that sometimes delay the delivery of necessary resources,” the Republican explained. “I think the fundamental mistake that Kamala Harris’ administration has made here … is that you should have imposed military-style command and control from the beginning.”
“You have to give a military commander on the ground the power to get helicopters where they need to go, to get supplies where they need to go, to cut through some of the FAA bureaucracy,” Vance continued.
“The problem here, I really think, is just this: It’s like the DMV on an industrial scale.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has also criticized the White House for its Helene response and its findings on illegal immigrants.
“If you talk to the people who were directly affected by this, they will tell you this has been a terrible failure,” Johnson, who has made trips to survey the damage in Georgia and Florida, said on Fox News. “FEMA, I think, has in so many cases lost sight of its core mission, and the administration has not shown that it was prepared for this eventuality and this terrible disaster.”
“Their mission is to help people in times like these of natural disasters, and not to be in the business of using money from any account to resettle illegal aliens who have crossed the border.”
“The American people are disgusted by this,” he added.
FEMA’s SSP has allocated more than $1 billion to shelter and support noncitizens since 2022
GOP VP nominee JD Vance blasted FEMA’s non-citizen fund
Vance also tore into Vice President Kamala Harris’ leadership during the disaster response
A FEMA whistleblower told Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz’s office last week that agency funds were being wasted.
So Gaetz followed up on the allegations by sending a letter to Mayorkas asking for more information.
The letter also claims that “hundreds, if not thousands” of first responders and military personnel had been left “without deployment orders,” with some waiting in hotels and others “idling” as Americans in the Southeast continued to be in dire need.
The whistleblower also alleged that FEMA withheld aid from Helene before the disaster.
Flooding near Asheville, North Carolina. More than 100 people in the state died from the storm
An American flag is reflected in the water left after Hurricane Helene on October 4
“There is a bucket of money at FEMA that has gone to illegal aliens and that is somehow separate from the bucket of money that should rightfully be going to American citizens,” Vance said Monday.
“What Donald Trump would do if he were president is impose real leadership and force the bureaucracy to respond to the needs of the American people not at a bureaucratic pace, but at a business pace.”
