FEMA tries to counter 'false' rumors about Hurricane Helene aid going to migrants
The Federal Emergency Management Agency launched a “rumor response” page on its website Thursday to try to counter what it calls “false” accusations that it has diverted disaster relief funds to house migrants to the U.S.
“This is false. No money is being diverted from disaster response needs. FEMA’s disaster response efforts and individual assistance is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts,” the agency says on its website. “Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts.”
How the rumor started
The accusations made against FEMA sprang to life on Wednesday after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas gave a news conference and said that while the agency had sufficient funds to deal with recovery efforts for victims of Hurricane Helene, it could run out of money if another major hurricane hit the U.S. this year.
“We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting,” Mayorkas said. “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.”
FEMA receives its funding through the Department of Homeland Security, and Congress recently passed a spending bill that gave FEMA $20 billion for disaster relief. In a separate pot of money, however, FEMA, along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, have funded communities to help pay for “food, shelter, clothing, acute medical care, and transportation to noncitizens recently released from DHS custody and awaiting their immigration court proceedings,” according to a DHS press release.
‘Put Americans first’
Blurring the distinctions between the different allocations, Republican politicians took Mayorkas’s words as evidence of misplaced priorities.
“Mayorkas and FEMA — immediately stop spending money on illegal immigration resettlement and redirect those funds to areas hit by the hurricane,” Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott wrote in a post on X that was shared by the social platform’s owner, Elon Musk. “Put Americans first.”
At a Thursday campaign rally in Saginaw, Mich., former President Donald Trump amplified that claim, asserting that FEMA was out of money to spend on recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene and blaming his political opponent.
“Kamala [Harris] spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants, many of whom should not be in our country,” Trump said at the rally, adding, “Now we have a horrific disaster in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Virginia — that’s how big this hurricane was — and the Harris-Biden administration says they don’t have any money. They’ve spent it all on … illegal migrants.”
At a briefing Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the accusations that the Biden administration had used FEMA disaster funding to house migrants “categorically false.”
On the ground
Contrary to Trump’s false claim, Congress approves FEMA’s budget. The agency has been on the ground in the areas impacted by the storm since it made landfall last week and is not close to being out of money to help aid victims. The agency says it has more than 1,000 staff members deployed and is “coordinating a federal force of over 4,800 personnel” in the recovery effort.
“FEMA has what it needs for immediate response and recovery efforts,” FEMA spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg said in a statement posted to X on Thursday.
But social media rumors supercharged by a political campaign and a devastating natural disaster have spread quickly and have targeted other aid organizations as well.
“Misinformation can spread quickly after a disaster, causing confusion and distrust within communities struggling to recover,” the American Red Cross wrote in a Thursday post on X. “Unfortunately, we’re seeing this during our response to Hurricane Helene.”
