The Department of Homeland Security informed Fox News that four employees are being terminated for bypassing their superiors and independently authorizing substantial payments for lodging for immigrants in New York City.
The dismissals occurred after Elon Musk stated on X that the DOGE team had recently discovered that FEMA had allocated $59 million the previous week to upscale hotels in New York City for the accommodation of undocumented migrants.
Musk criticized the expenditure, asserting that the allocation of funds breached the law and demonstrated blatant insubordination to the President’s executive directive. He emphasized that the funds were designated for American disaster relief, not for funding luxurious accommodations for undocumented individuals.
“A clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds,” he added.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., told “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday that the firings were ‘long overdue.”
“These funds have been misappropriated going back to the Biden administration and New York City – a sanctuary city – has been wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer money to provide free housing, clothing, food, education and healthcare to illegal immigrants, including criminal aliens that are here illegally,” he added.
“And so I applaud DHS for taking action to stop these payments under President Trump’s leadership because we have incentivized cities like New York and states like New York – a sanctuary state – to allow this to continue and it has to stop,” Lawler also said.
The Department of Homeland Security previously told Fox News Digital that those who made the payment will be “held accountable.”
Fox News’ Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.
