Homeland Security on Tuesday said it fired four employees it blames for making “egregious” payments for luxury hotels to house migrants in New York City.
Those axed include the chief financial officer at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, two program analysts and a grant specialist.
“Under President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s leadership, DHS will not sit idly and allow deep state activists to undermine the will and safety of the American people,” Homeland Security said in an unsigned statement.
Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, said FEMA made a $59 million payment last week to the hotels.
“Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the president’s executive order,” Mr. Musk wrote on social media.
The money Mr. Musk pointed to appears to be the city’s portion of a fund created by Congress to pay states and localities to accommodate the millions of new unauthorized migrants that settled in their jurisdictions in recent years. FEMA’s Shelter and Services program pays for housing, meals and other supports for the new arrivals to begin to assimilate.
Congress allocated $650 million for the program last year.
As of last September, New York City had received three installments of $38.9 million, $22.2 million and $20.4 million.
Other big winners included San Diego, where the county got $19.6 million, the local Catholic Charities branch got $41.2 million and Jewish Family Service San Diego received $22.1 million.
New York City officials disputed Mr. Musk’s claims, according to the New York Post.
The city said $19 million of the money went to house migrants, $26 million will go to food, security and other services and $13 million will go to shelters. The federal money was reimbursement for costs the city already incurred.
The issue of taxpayer money going to help illegal immigrants has enraged Republicans on Capitol Hill, who complained that FEMA was helping them even as it struggled to help Americans caught up in natural disasters last year.
Making matters worse, FEMA acknowledged last year that an employee running a team responding to the hurricanes in Florida told her subordinates to skip making visits at houses that had Trump signs.
That employee was fired in November.
FEMA didn’t identify the employee but Marn’i Washington came forward and defended her actions, saying she thought she was following the agency’s policies about limiting dangerous interactions. She said she was trying to help her team avoid “political hostility.”
FEMA’s then-director, Deanne Criswell, said those actions were not part of any agency policy.
Ms. Criswell left FEMA when Mr. Trump took office.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.