BATON ROUGE — Congressman Garret Graves addressed claims that the Biden administration diverted Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, funds to migrants instead of allocating them to hurricane-stricken areas, including Louisiana.
Prominent Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, have criticized Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ warning that there isn’t enough money for FEMA to “make it through the remainder of hurricane season.” The warning came after Hurricane Francine impacted Louisiana, Hurricane Helene ravaged several southeastern states, killing more than 250 people, and just before Hurricane Milton hit Florida.
Mayorkas did not specify how much additional funding FEMA might need, but his reference to a funding shortfall has drawn criticism, particularly as at least $640 million in FEMA funds have been allocated toward assisting migrants who have crossed into the United States illegally.
“FEMA has spent more than $1 billion resettling illegal aliens in America over the last two years,” Trump’s campaign posted on X. “Meanwhile, the agency is running out of money to respond to Hurricane Helene, which has left entire communities devastated. This is a scandal that should end Kamala Harris’ political career.”
Is FEMA running out of money?
FEMA’s fiscal year 2025 budget, approved by Congress, is $33.1 billion, an increase of $2.5 billion from 2024.
The agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, or DRF, is its primary appropriation for financing disaster response and recovery efforts. On October 8, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell reported that the agency had already spent $9 billion of the $20 billion Congress allocated to the DRF on October 1. The federal government’s fiscal year began on October 1, 2024, and will end on September 30, 2025.
Since last October, President Joe Biden has requested additional FEMA funding, and House Democrats are urging Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to “immediately reconvene” Congress to approve more disaster relief spending. However, Rep. Garret Graves believes such action is premature.
“I don’t see anything indicating that FEMA is imminently running out of money,” Graves told UWK exclusively. “Do I think that by the end of the year we’re going to need to replenish these funds? Absolutely. We’re going to have to provide additional funding for FEMA. But let me say it again: I don’t think there’s anything that suggests imminent problems regarding the availability of funds.”
Can FEMA money be diverted from migrant programs to disaster relief?
The debate over FEMA’s spending, particularly how much is allocated to disaster relief versus migrant assistance, is complex, and the responsibility may not rest solely with the agency.
The two programs at the center of the debate are the DRF and the Shelter and Services Program, or SSP, to which Congress appropriated $650 million in 2024. SSP provides financial support for sheltering and related activities to noncitizen migrants following their release from the Department of Homeland Security.
Graves explained that FEMA has different funding streams, and Congress appropriates and controls how the agency spends its funds.
“There is some limited authority for (the White House) to move money,” he said. “Ultimately, if that authority is not sufficient, Congress comes in and actually moves money in a way that will allow for the dollars to be in the right account.”
Graves compares it to a family budget—if you have money set aside for your mortgage, car payment, and utilities, but fall short on your mortgage, you would move extra funds from utilities to cover the shortfall. He argues that the government should manage its budget in the same way.
“We shouldn’t view taxpayer dollars any differently. We should prioritize, meaning, I’m not going to buy a bunch of filet mignons this month because I don’t have enough money and need it for my house payment. Congress needs to be doing the same thing.”
“FEMA has a lot of explaining to do”
Graves pointed out that FEMA has unliquidated obligations, or unspent money, that could be redirected to cover disaster relief shortfalls. A recent Inspector General report revealed that $73 billion in unspent funds remains from over 800 disaster declarations in the U.S. The audit found that “FEMA did not ensure it closed out disaster declarations in a timely manner.”
“The $73 billion figure identified by the Inspector General goes back to the 2016 flood and even goes back to events like Hurricanes Isaac in 2012, and believe it or not, Gustav and Ike in 2008. These represent decades of disasters. So, there is no scenario where FEMA could spend the $20 billion plus the $73 billion on these storms—no scenario. This is a situation where FEMA has a lot of explaining to do.”
WATCH: Rep. Graves discusses how lessons from 2016 flood helped shape the Disaster Reform Relief Act
How much is the U.S. spending on illegal immigrants?
House Republicans argue that FEMA disbursed more than $1.4 billion in grants to states and cities over fiscal years 2023 and 2024 for migrant sheltering and services. They claim that prior to 2023, FEMA “never received more than $150 million to fund migrant services.”
During that same period, there were approximately 4.5 million migrant apprehensions at the southern border—roughly the population of Louisiana—according to government figures. Graves claims that many of these migrants could be eligible for thousands of dollars in taxpayer-funded assistance.
“For a single illegal immigrant—I want to remind you, this is a citizen of a different country who doesn’t pay taxes in the United States and has already broken the law by coming here illegally—there are scenarios where a single immigrant could easily be spending in excess of $10,000 in taxpayer funds.”
Migrants do not receive direct payments when they enter the U.S. Instead, they are typically handed over to non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, at the border. The federal government allocates hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to NGOs and local governments, which these organizations apply for, to support the care of migrants.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, it provided $640.9 million in FY 2024 through its SSP to help cities and NGOs offset costs associated with migrants. Recently, DHS expanded the cap on both hotel stays and airfare to 10% of the total funding requested and allowed NGOs to apply for waivers due to operational needs.
Top recipients of SSP grants include cities like New York, Denver, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and organizations such as Catholic Charities across Texas.
‘We’ve got to prioritize citizens of our own country’
“If they’re put up at a hotel, that could be $6,000 right there—$6,000 that taxpayers are paying for an illegal immigrant to stay in a hotel. If organizations are providing food, they could get up to $9 a day per illegal immigrant. That illegal immigrant could also get a $700 plane ticket to wherever they want to go in the United States. They could also get health care and any kind of stabilizing healthcare, which we know could easily cost thousands and thousands of dollars. They could get clothing… counseling and other types of assistance,” Graves told UWK.
The money for housing, food, and even airline tickets is not directly paid to migrants by the government. “The overwhelming majority of migrants who cross the border have to pay for their own transport,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, told the AP. “There is no massive pool of money that is getting every migrant who crosses the border a plane ticket or anything like that.”
However, Graves argues that while the government may not physically purchase the plane or bus tickets, federal funds are used to reimburse NGOs, nonprofits, and local governments for expenses related to transporting people who enter the U.S. illegally.
“It’s all taxpayer money, and we’ve got to triage or prioritize. Certainly, citizens of our own country who don’t have food, water, housing, or electricity need to be prioritized over people from other countries who have illegally entered the United States.”
Graves elaborates further: “If you’ve got a citizen in western North Carolina who doesn’t have electricity, water, a place to stay, whose car has been flooded, and whose clothes and belongings have been ruined, and you’re offering them a check for $750 and a meal at a tent where folks from Louisiana are cooking jambalaya, that’s one thing. Yet, an illegal immigrant can come in, be picked up, taken on a bus to a city, put up in a hotel for a month, given a $700 plane ticket, and provided with clothes. I mean, this is a person who’s not even a citizen of our country. This is offensive. These are all taxpayer dollars. And I believe that we’re treating citizens of other countries, who have come here illegally, better than we’re treating our own citizens, our own people who are in dire situations. I don’t think this is the way taxpayer dollars should be prioritized. I think it’s disgusting what we’re doing now.”
Graves emphasizes that the U.S. should not abandon migrants facing hardship. However, he suggests that more responsibility should be placed on churches, nonprofits, and other organizations that individuals can contribute to directly.
“The United States can’t be the government to the world. There’s no question that the federal government re-victimizes its own citizens through bureaucracy and delays. But the other thing is, there’s no doubt in my mind that we’re not properly prioritizing our own citizens, and certainly not prioritizing the limited availability of taxpayer funds for the right things, which should be for our own citizens.”
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