A former senior official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency who was abruptly fired three weeks ago during a political blowup over a hotel program for migrants sued the government on Tuesday for unlawful termination.
FEMA’s ex-chief financial officer, Mary Comans, is seeking damages from the agency and the Department of Homeland Security for “falsely, deliberately and publicly” portraying what led to her firing on Feb. 11.
FEMA fired Comans after she processed $59 million in payments that had been approved months earlier to reimburse New York City for housing migrants in a Manhattan hotel.
FEMA paid New York through a program Congress created in 2023 to provide shelter and services to people who were released from federal custody after entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico. FEMA has spent $1 billion through its Shelter and Services Program to temporarily house undocumented migrants.
