Trump admin redirecting FEMA funds for holding migrants

WASHINGTON

The Trump administration is shifting $271 million from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including disaster relief funding, to pay for immigration detention space and hearing locations, the department confirmed Tuesday.

That includes $155 million that will be pulled from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster funding to pay for temporary court hearing facilities for asylum seekers that the administration has forced to wait in Mexico, according to a letter written by Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard to DHS's acting chief.

An additional $116 million from the budget of the DHS, which FEMA falls under, will be reallocated to fund additional U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention beds.

NBC News first reported the reallocations.

Congress was notified of the reallocations, which were not requested, as the administration contends it can swap the funds because federal lawmakers did not include the allocation for the beds in an emergency spending bill for the U.S.'s southern border that was passed in June.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed off on the funding bill July 1.

The $116 million in Homeland Security funding was previously allocated for Coast Guard operations and cybersecurity, according to the congresswoman's letter.

The funding diversion comes as Tropical Storm Dorian gathers strength and nears Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory that was ravaged by Hurricane Maria in 2017. It is still recovering from the widespread damage and flooding it wrought.

Roybal-Allard, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, formally objected to the transfers in a letter to Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan.

"It is of great concern that during the course of this administration, there has been a growing disconnect between the will of Congress, as represented by ICE funding levels in enacted appropriations bills signed by the president, and the department’s immigration enforcement operations, which often lack justification," she wrote.

She further contended that the department "provided no substantiation" to support its claim that the diversions are necessary and said the authorization under which it can transfer appropriations is intended "to allow the Department to respond to unforeseen events and circumstances, not to routinely augment an appropriation".

"The Department has now placed the renewal of that authority in jeopardy," she said.