FEMA didn’t spend all its money on immigrants. It has billions to respond to California fires.

As firefighters struggled to douse Southern California’s blazes, social media posts claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster response coffers had run dry.

"FEMA spent billions on illegal immigrants and now has no money for California!" a Jan. 8 X post said.

"Think the fires are bad? Wait until the people who lost everything find out FEMA ran out of money because they literally gave it to illegals," read an Instagram post the same day.

The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram.)

The claims echoed October statements from President-elect Donald Trump, who falsely asserted following Hurricane Helene that the Biden administration had raided FEMA to pay for migrants. On Jan. 8, as California houses burned, Trump repeated his description of a penniless FEMA unable to help:

"No water in the fire hydrants, no money in FEMA. This is what Joe Biden is leaving me. Thanks Joe!" Trump wrote on TruthSocial.

But FEMA isn’t broke.

On Dec. 21, President Joe Biden averted a government shutdown by signing a federal spending bill  that directed $29 billion to FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, part of a broader $100 billion package for disasters in general. This came after calls for increased funding in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton that struck the southeastern U.S. in September and October, respectively.

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Threads posts

stated on January 8, 2025 in a post

The Los Angeles Police Department is “looking for three ‘persons of interest’ all tied to a MAGA website who were spotted at the source of all three major LA fires.”

Biden on Jan. 8 also approved California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request for a major disaster declaration, a move that makes federal resources, including funding, readily available.

A FEMA spokesperson told PolitiFact on Jan. 8 that Congress’ federal spending bill provided the agency with the funding and resources it needs to respond to California’s disaster. The Disaster Relief Fund balance is now about $27 billion, the spokesperson said.

Congress funds migrant and disaster relief programs separately. And Trump’s administration, not Biden’s, shifted FEMA funding — including money from the Disaster Relief Fund — to address immigration.

Starting in 2019, during Trump’s first term, Congress allocated money to FEMA to include some migrants in its Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which had previously been used only for people dealing with hunger and homelessness. The FEMA money was sent to local and state governments and nonprofit organizations to provide services to immigrants officials had released into the U.S. to await court proceedings. Trump’s term also saw the transfer of about $155 million from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2019 for the detainment of migrants.

In 2023, Congress also directed FEMA and Customs and Border Protection to create the Shelter and Services Program to support nonfederal entities that offered shelter for migrants after they are released from the Department of Homeland Security. That program phased out support for migrants that drew from the Emergency Food and Shelter Program and its funding is allocated to Customs and Border Patrol but administered by FEMA.

FEMA has previously addressed claims that its disaster relief funds have been diverted to immigration issues. "This is false," the agency said in an Oct. 3 statement. "Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts."

Joshua Sewell, research and policy director at Taxpayers for Common Sense, told PolitiFact in October, "The Disaster Relief Fund has nothing to do with any migrant assistance account because all that spending is from separate funds."

We rate the claim that "FEMA spent billions on illegal immigrants and now has no money for California" Pants on Fire!

PolitiFact Staff Writer Maria Ramirez Uribe and Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman contributed to this report.