Trump admin attempts to claw back another $106 million from NYC

Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News on Apr 8, 2025

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NEW YORK — The Trump administration is trying to claw back over $106 million in migrant funds from city coffers — bringing the total the president has attempted to snatch from New York City to a whopping $188 million.

In a letter to the city, feds wrote that the grant money, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program, works against Donald Trump’s hardline immigration focus on ”enforcing immigration laws and securing the border” and therefore must be terminated.

The city plans to challenge that argument in court, Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.

“Like their previous actions clawing back appropriated funds, these steps are unlawful, and the New York City Law Department is currently determining the best legal recourse to take to ensure that this money remains in New York City, where it was allocated and belongs,” the mayor said.

In a letter to Neil Thompson, an assistant director at the city’s Office of Budget Management, a FEMA official wrote that the feds would revoke the total $188 million because the money was being used to support “illegal” immigrants.

“The Department, consistent with President Trump’s direction, is focused on advancing the essential mission of enforcing immigration laws and securing the border,” Cameron Hamilton, the FEMA official wrote in the letter, dated April 1. “Consequently, grant programs that support, or have the potential to support, illegal immigration through funding illegal activities or support for illegal aliens that is not consistent with DHS’s enforcement focus do not effectuate the agency’s current priorities.”

“… For these reasons, DHS/FEMA is terminating your awards.”

Adams’ relationship with Trump has been heavily scrutinized, and he’s been widely accused of allegedly entering into a corrupt deal with the president to get his federal corruption case dropped. The charges were dismissed last week.

Over 234,000 people have come through the city’s shelter system, which altogether cost the city over $7.5 billion, according to the mayor.

“Simply put, this SSP grant from the federal government is the bare minimum New York taxpayers deserve,” Adams said. “We will continue working to ensure our city’s residents receive every dollar they are owed and to prevent this funding clawback from taking effect.”

The feds previously clawed $80 million from city bank accounts in February, claiming the money was being illegally spent on housing migrants in “luxury hotels.”

The mayor sued Trump in an attempt to get that money back. The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, said the feds carried out the withdrawal of funds without any formal process in a move that was “simply put, lawless.”

The Department of Homeland Security previously fired four FEMA employees “for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments” to New York, according to a DHS statement in February.

The FEMA funds being threatened were approved by Congress while Joe Biden was still in office, and serve as reimbursements for funds already spent on critical services for migrants.