New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams is scheduled to satisfy with President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement places of work in New York on Thursday morning. It is the primary huge take a look at for Adams’ relationship with Trump’s crew after the U.S. Justice Division on Monday directed federal prosecutors in Manhattan to drop corruption prices towards the mayor, with a high official saying the administration needed Adams free to assist the Republican president’s immigration agenda.
The assembly comes because the Federal Emergency Administration Company clawed again greater than $80 million from New York Metropolis, officers mentioned Wednesday, escalating a dispute between the Trump administration and the nation’s largest metropolis over cash for sheltering migrants.
The transfer got here as a federal choose mentioned he wouldn’t cease FEMA from reclaiming the funds.
Gone is a $59 million grant that the administration challenged earlier within the week and one other award for $21.5 million, Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander mentioned. The cash was found to be lacking in a single day, and Lander mentioned nobody in his workplace had been conscious that the federal authorities had entry to the town’s checking account.
Adams, a Democrat, mentioned metropolis officers had contacted the White Home about getting again the cash, are looking for an emergency assembly with FEMA and exploring authorized choices. Adams mentioned he would talk about the matter with Homan, once they meet in New York on Thursday.
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The grants have been utilized for and awarded in the course of the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden however weren’t disbursed till final week, the town mentioned.
Quickly after, Trump adviser Elon Musk flagged $59 million in funds, writing on X that his so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity had found the cash was used to accommodate migrants in “luxury hotels.” Musk gave no proof to help his declare.
Within the final two years, New York Metropolis has leased a number of funds inns and different vacant buildings, turning them into migrant shelters.
FEMA’s appearing administrator mentioned in court docket paperwork filed Tuesday that the cash was being clawed again over issues about “illegal activities” at a lodge.
Lander questioned whether or not the transfer was authorized, saying he had by no means seen a case the place somebody was “licensed to come back into your financial institution accounts and take it again due to shifting political winds.”
That is “the primary vital take a look at of whether or not we nonetheless have unbiased management at Metropolis Corridor,” mentioned Lander, an Adams critic who’s difficult him in June’s Democratic main.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt advised at a briefing Wednesday that the administration felt paying for inns for migrants within the metropolis was not a worthy expense whereas FEMA offers with expensive disasters elsewhere.
Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X that she “has clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels.”
A federal choose dominated Wednesday that the administration can proceed efforts to withhold the FEMA cash from the town. U.S. District Choose John McConnell in Rhode Island mentioned that cash was not topic to an order, nonetheless in impact, geared toward stopping an administration pause on federal funding.
On Tuesday, the federal government fired 4 staff whom the Division of Homeland Safety claimed circumvented management to make the transactions. Such funds have been customary for years by a program that helps with prices to take care of a surge in migration.
On Tuesday, the federal government fired 4 staff whom Division of Homeland Safety officers accused of circumventing management to make the transactions. Such funds have been customary for years by a program that helps with prices to take care of a surge in migration.
Many of the former inns leased by the town are occupied by households with kids. None can be thought-about “luxury” by most traveler requirements.
The town additionally started leasing the constructing that after housed the Roosevelt Resort as an consumption middle for migrants looking for metropolis companies in 2023, after it closed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That lodge has a grand previous, although within the years earlier than its closure it was an reasonably priced possibility for vacationers to the town.
Underneath metropolis regulation, New York should supply shelter to anybody who wants it, and on the time the common homeless shelter system was overwhelmed with new arrivals. The lodge now serves as each a spot the place migrants should go to use for companies and as a brief shelter for tons of of households who can keep for less than 60 days.
The Shelter and Providers Program, with cash coming from Congress and administered by FEMA, has turn into a flashpoint for criticism by Republicans, who incorrectly declare it’s taking funds from folks hit by hurricanes or floods.
Related Press writers Michael R. Sisak in New York and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed reporting.
