Adams sues Trump admin over clawback of $80M migrant shelter funds from NYC
New York City filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Friday to recoup $80.5 million of congressionally approved migrant funding the feds quietly seized from the city’s coffers last week.
The city’s Law Department blasted President Trump for conducting an “unlawful money grab” that snatched Federal Emergency Management Agency payments without any advance notice, according to the suit filed in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York.
The payments were dispersed to help pay back local governments, including New York City, for shouldering the massive cost of the migrant crisis.
“Without a doubt, our immigration system is broken, but the cost of managing an international humanitarian crisis should not overwhelmingly fall onto one city alone,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement Friday night.
“With very little help from the federal government, our administration has skillfully managed an unprecedented crisis, which has seen over 231,000 people enter our city asking for shelter. The $80 million that FEMA approved, paid, and then rescinded — after the city spent more than $7 billion in the last three years — is the bare minimum our taxpayers deserve,” he continued.
“And that’s why we’re going to work to ensure our city’s residents get every dollar they are owed.”
Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are among the defendants listed in the suit.
The sudden withdrawal of FEMA funds from New York City’s accounts unfolded Feb. 11 — without Adams’ knowledge — just days after Elon Musk claimed his Department of Government Efficiency discovered $59 million was being wasted on “luxury hotels” to house illegal migrants.
City Comptroller Brad Lander publicly revealed the missing funds the next morning and accused Trump and the richest man alive of “highway robbery.”
New York City applied for and was awarded two separate grants of $58.6 million and $21.9 million under the Biden administration as city officials scrambled for federal help to pay for the costs shouldered for sheltering migrants who flowed over the US-Mexico border, according to city and federal officials.
The payments were then made under the Shelter and Services Program which Congress appropriated $650 million toward in 2024.
The FEMA money, funded by US Customs and Border Protection, offered $12.50 a night reimbursement for each hotel room, city officials said, adding most of the 150-odd hotels used by the city to house migrants aren’t luxury accommodations.
The rest of the money would go toward security, food and other services for migrants, officials said.
“As my office discovered that Elon Musk and his DOGE goon squad stole $80 million out of the City’s coffers, we successfully pressured Mayor Adams to allow the City’s lawyers to sue the federal government to get our money back,” Lander, who is running against Adams in the June Democratic mayoral primary, said in a statement Friday.
“The lawyers who are standing up to President Trump and Eric Adams’ collusion deserve praise and we look forward to Donald Trump returning the money he stole from New York.”
The lawsuit against the commander in chief comes as concerned lawmakers call for Adams’ resignation or removal after Trump ordered the Department of Justice to dismiss its federal corruption case against the mayor.
Top federal prosecutor Danielle Sassoon, who abruptly resigned, alleged the dismissal came with an improper “quid pro quo” that the mayor would have to do the president’s bidding on immigration.
Four deputy mayors have since resigned from Hizzoner’s administration.
The alleged deal — which Adams’ attorney and DOJ officials denied — was widely seen by critics, mostly progressives, as keeping the mayor beholden to Trump, rather than New York City voters.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
