No.
The Biden Administration has not diverted Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster relief funds to services for undocumented immigrants. Natural disaster funding is administered through FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which Congress annually replenishes and often supplements in the wake of major disasters.
Congress does allocate funding to FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, a separate initiative that supports communities providing aid to migrants as they await processing hearings. Funds for this program are transferred to FEMA from U.S. Customs and Border Protection with legislative approval.
The FEMA Shelter and Services Program, adopted in 2023, replaced a related FEMA program that initially began supporting migrants in 2019, under the Trump Administration. It has received more than $1 billion in funding over the past two years. The Disaster Relief Fund received more than $80 billion over the same period.
This fact brief responds to conversations such as this one.
The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs, or quick-response fact checks, about trending claims relating to Arizona.
Sources
- Congressional Research Service, Migrant Assistance Through the FEMA Emergency Food and Shelter Program
- Congressional Research Service, The Disaster Relief Fund: Overview and Issues
- Department of Homeland Security, FY24 Budget in Brief
- Federal Emergency Management Agency, Disaster Relief Fund
- Congress, FY24 Omnibus
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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is partnering with Gigafact to produce timely fact briefs, or quick-response fact checks, about trending claims relating to Arizona.
