FEMA ripped for disgusting DMV-like slow response after Hurricane Helene while agency helps illegal migrants
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) continues to get pummeled for its slow DMV-like Hurricane Helene response.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) continues to get pummeled for its slow DMV-like Hurricane Helene response.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made the shock announcement that the disaster emergency fund for hurricanes may soon run dry.
Since then, Republicans have claimed that FEMAs money allocated for illegal migrant housing should go to Americans in distress while Democrats say the money was never for hurricane relief use and is not transferable.
As FEMA has been repeatedly lambasted for its Helene response, another massive storm is barreling towards Floridas west coast and more destruction is expected.
All while funds for FEMAs non-citizen-only Shelter and Service Program - which has received over $1 billion since 2022 - remain unavailable to Americans.
People clear flood debris from Monteaths Auto Service in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene flooding along the Swannanoa River on October 4, 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina. Over 220 people died as a result of the storm. The clean up will costs tens of billions of dollars
The Biden-Harris administration has turned FEMA effectively into an agency that helps to resettle and helps to deal with illegal immigration, Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance said Monday on Fox News.
That is just fundamentally going to distract focus from their core job of helping American citizens in their time of need, the Ohio senator continued. It is incompetence of the highest order.
Over the last two years, FEMA has received more than $1 billion taxpayer dollars to specifically support illegal migrants with housing and humanitarian services.
The program to provide shelters for non-citizens has seen its budget nearly double from $363.8 million in 2023 to $650 million 2024.
Additionally, $780 million of FEMAs Emergency Food and Shelter Program has been allocated for non-citizens since 2022.
But the White House pushed back on claims regarding the FEMA money for non-citizens Monday, with Press Sec. Karine Jean-Pierre saying, No money is being diverted from responses to migrants.
Though some republicans are saying that is untrue.
Republicans are NOT lying about FEMA funds going to migrants. It’s well documented and it has been for years. In fact here are just a few of the receipts, Texas Republican Wesley Hunt posted on X alongside clips showing reporters speaking about FEMA resources for migrants.
This administration seems to think if they deny reality hard enough, the American people won’t notice, another Texas Republican, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, posted on X. But FEMA has spent hundreds of millions on its ‘Shelter and Services Program’ for migrants this year—and it’s right there on FEMA ’s own website.
Republicans, however, say the money for migrants isnt the sole issue with FEMA.
People look out over flood damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on October 3, 2024 in Bat Cave, North Carolina. Over 220 people were killed due to the storm
Members of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force search a flood damaged area with a search canine in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene along the Swannanoa River on October 4, 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina
Migrants from Nepal, India and Bangladesh sit waiting for a ride from Border Patrol after crossing into the U.S. illegally
Youve got a lot of different bureaucratic fiefdoms that sometimes delay the provision of necessary resources, the Republican explained. I think the fundamental mistake that Kamala Harris administration has made here … is that from the get-go, you should have imposed military-style command and control.
You need to empower a military commander on the ground to get helicopters to where they need to go, to get supplies to where they need to go, to cut through some of the FAA bureaucracy, Vance continued.
The problem here, I really believe, is just — its like the DMV at industrial scale.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has also ripped the White House for its Helene response and finding for illegal immigrants.
When you talk to the people who are directly affected, they will tell you that this has been an abject failure, Johnson, who has made trips to survey damage in Georgia and Florida, said on Fox News. FEMA has lost sight of its core mission I think in so many cases, and the administration has not shown that they were prepared for this eventuality and this terrible disaster.
Their mission is to help people in times like this of natural disaster, not to be engaged in using any pool of funding from any account for resettling illegal aliens who have come across the border.
The American people are disgusted by this, he added.
FEMAs SSP allocated over $1 billion to shelter and support non-citizens since 2022
GOP VP nominee J.D. Vance slammed FEMAs non-citizen-only fund
Vance ripped VP Kamala Harriss leadership during the disaster response as well
A FEMA whistleblower last week told Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetzs office that agency funds were being wasted.
So Gaetz followed up to the allegations by sending a letter to Mayorkas demanding to know more.
The letter also alleges hundreds if not thousands of first responders and service members had been without deployment orders with some waiting around in hotels while others have sat idle as Americans throughout the southeast remained in dire need.
The whistleblower also alleged that FEMA withheld pre-disaster relief before Helene.
Flooding near Asheville, North Carolina. Over 100 people in the state died from the storm
An American flag is reflected in floodwaters remaining from Hurricane Helene on October 4
Theres a bucket of money in FEMA thats gone to illegal aliens and thats somehow separate than the bucket of money that should by right go to American citizens, Vance said Monday.
What Donald Trump would do, if he was president, is impose real leadership, force the bureaucracy to be responsive, not at a bureaucratic pace, but at a business pace to the needs of American citizens.
