NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Wednesday declined to order the Trump administration to immediately return to New York City $80.5 million of grants intended to cover part of the city’s cost of housing migrants.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rearden said the city failed to show irreparable harm, and could still recover the money if it eventually prevailed in the lawsuit. She ruled after an approximately two-hour hearing in Manhattan federal court.
The White House and New York City’s law department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
City officials sued after the funds paid on February 4 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, went missing from a bank account, having been clawed back by the agency.
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Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said on February 12 the money represented “the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels.”
But the city called the clawback a “money grab” that thwarted Congress’ purpose in appropriating the money.
It urged Rearden to order the $80.5 million returned and bar Republican President Donald Trump’s administration from similar further takings.
The dispute stemmed from grants FEMA gave the most populous U.S. city to defray the cost of sheltering migrants in hotels.
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These grants were part of a push to reduce overcrowding at facilities near the border, as migration surged during former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.
The White House and New York City’s law department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
City officials sued after the funds paid on February 4 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, went missing from a bank account, having been clawed back by the agency.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said on February 12 the money represented “the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels.”
RELATED:
But the city called the clawback a “money grab” that thwarted Congress’ purpose in appropriating the money.
It urged Rearden to order the $80.5 million returned and bar Republican President Donald Trump’s administration from similar further takings.
The dispute stemmed from grants FEMA gave the most populous U.S. city to defray the cost of sheltering migrants in hotels.
These grants were part of a push to reduce overcrowding at facilities near the border, as migration surged during former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.
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REUTERS
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