Pie chart:

Fiscal 2024 Appropriations to FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund
$35,761,000,000

Fiscal 2024 Appropriations, from CBP to FEMA, to help cities and non-profits keep recently released migrants off of U.S. streets
$650,000,000

Donald Trump and others are pushing a completely false story that response to Hurricane Helene has been hobbled because the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has had funds “stolen” to help shelter migrants recently released from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody at the border.

As many have pointed out, there is exactly zero truth to this. But even if that happened, it wouldn’t have amounted to much. In 2024, appropriations to FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which prevents migrants from being dumped on U.S. streets upon release, totaled less than 2 percent of appropriations to FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund.