Democrats Request $50 Million to Cope With Illegal Immigrants Bused From Texas, Arizona

A group of House Democrats on Friday requested an additional $50 million for FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) as Washington, New York City, and Chicago to cope with an influx of illegal immigrants.

In a letter signed by 23 House Democrats, Reps. Jesús García (Ill.), Adriano Espaillat (N.Y.), and D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said that nearly 60 percent of the $150 million EFSP budget remains amid the request for the funding increase.

Norton said that the Democrats wrote to the heads of the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee requesting an additional $50 million be included in FEMA’s 2023 budget for EFSP.

“The EFSP provides federal funding for food, shelter, and other necessities. In FY 2022, Congress provided $150 million to this program for humanitarian assistance for migrants,” they wrote in the letter (pdf).

A bus carrying illegal immigrants who claimed asylum arrives at Port Authority Bus Terminal from Texas, in New York City, on Aug. 10, 2022. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images)

“As of July 21, 2022, approximately $85 million of this funding remained available. However, the busing of migrants to D.C., New York City, and Chicago and resettlement in cities like Boston has increased funding requests across the Northeast and the Midwest. Without additional funding, the EFSP may exhaust its funding.”

The Democrats took aim at Texas and Arizona’s Republican governors, Gregg Abbott and Doug Ducey, for their programs to bus apprehended illegal immigrants who claim asylum to Democrat-run cities with so-called sanctuary policies.

“Since mid-April, the governors of Texas and Arizona have exploited and harmed approximately 10,000 vulnerable people fleeing desperate and dangerous situations in their home countries for political gain by busing them to D.C., New York City, and Chicago,” the Democrats wrote in the letter.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Mission to Secure Border

Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in

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