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.
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