Four Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees were fired for sending $59 million to NYC hotels to house illegal immigrants.
The $59 million payment was discovered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) during an audit of FEMA.
On Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the entire $59 million was recovered from NYC hotels.
?#BREAKING: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has confirmed that all $59,000,000 sent to luxury hotels in NYC for illegal immigrants has been RETURNED to FEMA.
This comes after Elon Musks's DOGE uncovered the payments just 48 hours ago…pic.twitter.com/NDXhNByiyb
— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) February 12, 2025
Noem previously said she supports getting “rid of FEMA” as part of President Donald Trump‘s campaign promise to stop wasteful government spending.
Musk tweeted about the payments to NYC hotels on Monday.
“That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high-end hotels for illegals,” Musk wrote. He promised DOGE would be making “a clawback demand … to recoup those funds” from the hotels in NYC.
Musk said $19 million of the $59 million went for direct hotel costs, while the rest went to pay for catering and security for the migrants.
Cameron Hamilton, FEMA’s acting administrator under President Trump, said that FEMA has suspended all payments to New York City to house migrants, effective Monday, Feb. 10.
