Mayor Eric Adams
Michael Appleton/Mayoral Images Workplace
New York Metropolis sued the Trump administration Friday, demanding the return of some $80 million in federal catastrophe aid funding that was unceremoniously taken again earlier this month in what Metropolis Corridor referred to as a “money grab.”
The funds in query have been supplied by the Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA) in an settlement made throughout the Biden administration to assist the town recoup its personal bills for offering care to tens of hundreds of migrants who started arriving within the Huge Apple in 2022. However on Feb. 11, FEMA — now below new administration — abruptly eliminated a little bit greater than $80 million proper from a metropolis checking account with none prior discover or warning.
Metropolis Corridor says that transfer violated “federal regulations and terms of the Shelter and Service Program grant terms” and marked an abuse of “the federal government’s authority and obligations to implement congressionally approved and funded programs.”
“Without a doubt, our immigration system is broken, but the cost of managing an international humanitarian crisis should not overwhelmingly fall onto one city alone,” Mayor Eric Adams stated late on Friday in saying the lawsuit. “The $80 million that FEMA approved, paid, and then rescinded — after the city spent more than $7 billion in the last three years — is the bare minimum our taxpayers deserve. And that’s why we’re going to work to ensure our city’s residents get every dollar they are owed.”
Single male migrants ready to get a brand new shelter placement outdoors St. Brigid’s within the East Village in March 2024.Picture by Dean Moses
The lawsuit contends that the Trump administration moved to take again the funding as a “money grab” as a result of “they oppose the purposes for which the funds were appropriated, awarded, approved and paid.” Metropolis Company Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant stated the lawsuit goals to not solely get the $80 million again but additionally make sure the federal authorities by no means once more makes such a seizure.
Together with Trump, others named as defendants within the case embody Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem. FEMA is below the course of the Division of Homeland Safety.
Metropolis Corridor filed the lawsuit within the federal courtroom of the Southern District of New York. It got here greater than per week after Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander, the town’s monetary watchdog, demanded that the town’s Regulation Division take authorized motion in opposition to the Trump administration for the seizure.
Whereas Mayor Adams didn’t point out by identify President Trump or Elon Musk (the billionaire head of the “Department of Government Efficiency” [DOGE] who has been executing cuts all through the federal authorities) in saying the lawsuit Friday, Lander referred to as them out in his personal assertion whereas praising attorneys “who are standing up to” alleged collusion between Trump and Mayor Adams.
“After my office discovered that Elon Musk and his DOGE goon squad stole $80 million out of the city’s coffers, we successfully pressured Mayor Adams to allow the City’s lawyers to sue the federal government to get our money back,” stated Lander, who’s difficult Adams within the 2025 mayoral main. “The lawyers who are standing up to President Trump and Eric Adams’ collusion deserve praise, and we look forward to Donald Trump returning the money he stole from New York.”
The lawsuit got here hours after a federal choose canceled Mayor Adams’ impending legal trial on marketing campaign fraud fees, which the Trump Justice Division seeks to have dismissed. Decide Dale Ho, nonetheless, appointed impartial counsel to make arguments in opposition to dismissing the indictment earlier than rendering a ultimate determination within the matter. Arguments are due in March.
