Social media posts falsely claim that FEMA has run out of money due to spending on migrants. FEMA has $27 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund and is ready to respond to California's fires.
Water is dropped by helicopter on the Kenneth Fire in the West Hills section of Los Angeles, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP)In December, Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed a bill giving the Federal Emergency Management Agency $29 billion for its Disaster Relief Fund. A FEMA spokesperson told PolitiFact the fund currently has a balance of $27 billion and the agency is ready to respond to the southern California fires.
A separate FEMA program that supports some homeless people, including migrants, draws from funds allocated to Customs and Border Protection, not FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund.As firefighters struggled to douse southern California’s blazes, social media posts claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster response coffers had run dry. 'Think the fires are bad? Wait until the people who lost everything find out FEMA ran out of money because they literally gave it to illegals,' read an The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about ourfollowing Hurricane Helene that the Biden administration had raided FEMA to pay for migrants. On Jan. 8, as California houses burned, Trump repeated his description of a penniless FEMA unable to help:'No water in the fire hydrants, no money in FEMA. This is what Joe Biden is leaving me. Thanks Joe!' Trump wrote on, part of a broader $100 billion package for disasters in general. This came after calls for increased funding in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton that struck the southeastern U.S. in September and October, respectively.A FEMA spokesperson told PolitiFact on Jan. 8 that Congress’ federal spending bill provided the agency with the funding and resources it needs to respond to California’s disaster. The Disaster Relief Fund balance is currently about $27 billion, the spokesperson said.. And Trump’s administration, not Biden’s, shifted FEMA funding — including money from the Disaster Relief Fund — to address immigration.The Los Angeles Police Department is “looking for three ‘persons of interest’ all tied to a MAGA website who were spotted at the source of all three major LA fires.”to FEMA to include some migrants in its Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which had previously been used only for people dealing with hunger and homelessness. The FEMA money was sent to local and state governments and nonprofit organizations to provide services to immigrants officials had released into the U.S. to await court proceedings. Trump’s term also saw theto support non-federal entities that offered shelter for migrants after they are released from the Department of Homeland Security. That programfor migrants that drew from the Emergency Food and Shelter Program and its funding is allocated to CBP but administered by FEMA. FEMA has previously addressed claims that its disaster relief funds have been diverted to immigration issues.'This is false,' the agency said in anJoshua Sewell, director of research and policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense, told PolitiFact in October,'The Disaster Relief Fund has nothing to do with any migrant assistance account because all that spending is from separate funds.' We rate the claim that'FEMA spent billions on illegal immigrants and now has no money for California' Pants on Fire
FEMA Disaster Relief California Fires Immigration Misinformation
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