Getty PhotosA political row has erupted after Donald Trump claimed that Individuals hit exhausting by Hurricane Helene had been lacking out on emergency help cash as a result of it was being spent on immigrants.
The White Home shortly dismissed the claims and accused Republicans of spreading “boldfaced lies” about catastrophe response funding.
On Wednesday, US Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas mentioned the Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA), which he oversees, had no cash for the remainder of the hurricane season.
Trump and his allies expressed outrage that the company had spent greater than $640m (£487m) on housing migrants.
However officers famous that this funding, approved by Congress, was a part of a wholly totally different program run by Fema that was unrelated to catastrophe aid.
With lower than a month to go earlier than the White Home election, Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris are neck and neck in a number of swing states, equivalent to North Carolina and storm-battered Georgia, that may resolve the vote.
The deadliest US mainland hurricane since Katrina in 2005, Helene ripped by the Southeast final week, claiming a minimum of 225 lives and leaving lots of extra lacking.
Each Trump and Vice President Harris have made journeys to a number of the affected states.
Republicans have tried to tie catastrophe aid efforts to immigration — a problem seen as a power for Trump — however have unfold misinformation about how authorities cash is getting used.
At an occasion in Evans, Georgia, on Friday, Trump mentioned, with out proof, that: “A number of the cash that was alleged to go to Georgia and it was alleged to go to North Carolina and all the remaining goes and already gone. .
“It's gone for individuals who got here into the nation illegally and no person has ever seen something prefer it. It's a disgrace.”
FEMA acquired a price range from Congress – $640 million within the final fiscal yr – to supply housing to immigrants making use of for US citizenship.
However the cash got here by a federal immigration company, Customs and Border Safety.
It was spent by FEMA's Shelter and Companies Program (SSP) and is a separate pot of cash for the company's practically $20 billion Catastrophe Aid Fund, which is used to reply to hurricanes and different pure disasters.
FEMA's catastrophe aid price range for the yr expired on the finish of September, and the company is presently engaged on interim funding whereas Congress negotiates a brand new annual price range.
The company has responded to Trump's declare with a site dedicated to fact-checkingand a press release from the Division of Homeland Safety.
“That is false,” Fema mentioned in a press release. “No cash is being diverted from catastrophe response wants.”
To date, greater than $45 million has been awarded to communities affected by Hurricane Helene, the company mentioned.
FEMA has additionally despatched greater than 11.5 million meals and 12.6 million liters of water after Helene, Vice President Harris mentioned Friday, including that greater than 5,600 federal personnel had been on the bottom.
However Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr, tweeted on X, previously Twitter, on Thursday that it was “loopy” that billions of in overseas help had been being despatched to Ukraine, as an alternative of Americans who had misplaced all the pieces within the storm.
In the meantime, Trump's critics have identified that when he was president in 2019, $155 million was transferred from FEMA's working price range to fund deportations of immigrants to Mexico.