By Dale Wilcox
As the Southeastern U.S. has been devastated by two major hurricanes, the costs of the Biden Administration’s self-inflicted illegal immigration crisis continue to be exposed.
Hurricane Helene caused devastation throughout the region, decimating areas in Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina, and displacing many of its residents. American citizens have lost their homes, their life’s work, and are without access to shelter and food. Some residents remain missing. The agency charged with helping these Americans is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is supposed to coordinate and assist recovery efforts on behalf of the federal government. Yet, in recent years, this agency has been focused on other priorities.
Since the fall of 2022, FEMA has spent more than $1.4 billion caring for illegal aliens and the panicked agency now says they’re running out of money. Of course, spending billions on illegal aliens when your own people’s homes are destroyed by a natural disaster is a public relations nightmare, so the Biden Administration has responded by pretending it’s not happening.
“It’s just categorically false. No, Biden did not take FEMA relief money to use to use on migrants,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a recent press conference.
However, Jean-Pierre’s denials are contradicted by statements she made in 2022 as another hurricane ravaged the Southeast.
“FEMA regional administrators have been meeting with city officials on site to coordinate available federal support from FEMA and other federal agencies. Funding is also available through FEMA’s emergency food and shelter program to eligible local governments and non-for-profit organizations upon request to support humanitarian relief for migrants,” she said at the time.
So, there you have it. The Biden Administration has spent years prioritizing illegal aliens over Americans, and now U.S. citizens are struggling to get the relief they desperately need while the White House washes its hands of all responsibility. The administration’s allies in the press have attempted to obfuscate this reality with phony fact checks and talking points, claiming that since the funding for illegal aliens came from a different part of the agency, this means that those complaining about the agency spending money on illegal aliens have it all wrong. This is false for many reasons.
First of all, money is fungible. Federal agencies receive a certain amount of money from Congress each year and hold wide discretion over how they spend it. Money can easily be moved around during times of emergencies and the more than $1.4 billion FEMA has spent on illegal aliens would certainly be useful to help displaced Americans right now. This year alone, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded $640 million to FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program “for services associated with noncitizen migrant arrivals in their communities.”
How much could the displaced residents of Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina use an influx of $640 million right now? At almost any other point in American history, an administration lavishing funds on illegal aliens while pinching pennies for Americans affected by a natural disaster would be a massive scandal. Instead, the corporate media is running interference to protect the ruling authorities from criticism over their disgraceful dereliction of duty. The response to this hurricane has been a tremendous failure on the part of the federal government despite current attempts to obfuscate this truth.
Just months ago, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said FEMA was “tremendously prepared” to handle hurricane season, but now claims the agency is out of money. Either Mayorkas and DHS were lying about being ready for hurricane season, or they were too busy funneling money to illegal aliens to adequately prepare. It’s hard to tell which is worse. Regardless, this latest flop is not surprising. The Biden Administration has made clear since its first day in office that foreign nationals come first and U.S. citizens come last.
This is an administration which has allowed more than 10 million illegal aliens to cross the border in less than four years despite having the power to put a stop to it at any time. This has imposed tremendous costs on American taxpayers at the federal, state, and local level. Is it any surprise that in their hour of need, the money has now dried up?
The Biden White House can lie and deflect all they want, but there is no legitimate reason for an agency tasked with assisting Americans through national disasters to lavish more than $1.4 billion on foreign nationals who have crossed our border illegally. That they did so should be considered a historic scandal and a massive failure.
Dale L. Wilcox is executive director and general counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.