DOGE uncovers $59 million spent by FEMA to house illegal immigrants in NYC hotels

On Monday, Elon Musk said on X that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team discovered that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) paid out "$59 [million]" to "luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants" last week. This comes as DOGE has been looking through spending records of government agencies looking for waste.

According to Musk, "The DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants. Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order."

"That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals! A clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds," Musk added.

After President Donald Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order on January 24 saying that FEMA lost its "mission focus, diverting limited staff and resources to support missions beyond its scope and authority, spending well over a billion dollars to welcome illegal aliens." He directed a "full-scale review" of the agency by a council in order to identify waste as well as examine the agency for any structural changes.

The president demanded that the council hold a meeting within the first 90 days of his term and that within 180 days, a full report on their findings be submitted to him. Trump had raised the idea of getting rid of FEMA altogether just days beforehand.

Controversy over funds connected to FEMA potentially going to house illegal immigrants surged when hurricanes struck the southeastern United States in the fall and FEMA was found to be unable to meet the challenge satisfactorally. The Department of Homeland Security diverted over $640 million to FEMA for the sheltering of "non-citizen migrants" in 2024, and those payments have gone to cover housing for illegal immigrants in cities around the United States. It is unclear if Musk was saying that the funds FEMA spent in New York were from their own budget or from the DHS allocation. It is not uncommon for one government agency to spend funds to contract out another government agency to do a job.