White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre gave a mixed answer when asked last week about former President Donald Trump‘s claims that the Federal Emergency Management Agency‘s funds for illegal immigrants were going toward hurricane relief.
On Friday, Jean-Pierre called the accusation from Trump “false” but appeared to conflate the former president’s comment in response to a reporter’s question about the claim that the Biden administration is “using FEMA funding to support undocumented migrants.”
“I mean, it’s just categorically false. It is not true. It is a false statement. And look, the fact of the matter is — I think the Washington Post fact-checker did a piece and the headline recently, just moments ago, not too long ago, and the headline was ‘No, Biden didn’t take FEMA relief money to use on migrants — but Trump did,’” Jean-Pierre said.
President Joe Biden’s administration has not reallocated funds meant for disaster relief toward the border crisis, but rather, those funds are separate from the Disaster Relief Fund. Funds for handling illegal immigrants’ housing and other needs are being handled by the Shelter and Services Program, which the Department of Homeland Security said is separate.
“The Shelter and Services Program is a completely separate, appropriated grant program that was authorized and funded by Congress and is not associated in any way with FEMA’s disaster-related authorities or funding streams,” the agency said in a statement.
Jean-Pierre’s response alluded to distinguishing between the different funds, but FEMA has indeed used funds allocated separately from disaster relief for supporting illegal immigrants. The comments from Jean-Pierre on Friday led to some pushback from people pointing out FEMA’s funding of shelter and services for illegal immigrants.
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FEMA has said that while there is enough funding for the agency to respond to Hurricane Helene, concerns have risen that there may not be enough to make it to the end of hurricane season, which lasts until Nov. 30.
The scrutiny over FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene comes as Hurricane Milton appears on course to batter Florida later this week.