The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency undercut President Donald Trump’s false statements that the agency spent disaster aid on undocumented migrants, noting in court papers that the money came from a special fund that is separate from recovery efforts.
Cameron Hamilton, acting administrator of FEMA, wrote in a court filing this week that FEMA migrant aid is funded through a program intended “to provide temporary shelter and other services to aliens released from custody.”
Trump and his supporters, including Republicans in Congress and Hamilton himself, have spread misinformation in accusing the agency of diverting disaster aid to help migrants who illegally crossed the southwest border into the United States. Hamilton used his personal X account to amplify the false accusations months before Trump appointed him to run the agency.
He tacitly walked those claims back in Tuesday’s court filing by citing laws that Congress — including the Republican-controlled House — passed in 2023 and 2024 to create and fund the Shelter and Services Program, which offers hotel rooms to migrants who were released from federal custody after entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico.
