Migrants Respond to FEMA Withdrawal: ‘They Are Painting Every Venezuelan as a TDA Member’

Two days after FEMA’s acting administrator Cameron Hamilton filed a court document revoking $80 million in Shelter and Services Program (SSP) funds for New York City — alleging the money may have been used to facilitate “illegal activities” at city-run migrant shelters — residents of the Roosevelt Hotel, which the filing mentioned by name, stood outside in the rain discussing rumors of a possible closure. 

Those who spoke with Documented said they heard the court filing was because rumors had spread that the shelter was a hub for members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that the Trump administration designated as a terrorist organization.

“They are painting every Venezuelan as a TDA member. Do they [Department of Homeland Security] really think TDA members would be standing out here with their faces shown to the public?,” D.,  a Venezuelan migrant who arrived in the United States two and a half years ago, told Documented in Spanish. 

D. and another two migrants, who asked to be identified by their first name initial, said that they had not seen nor heard any rumors that TDA members were in the shelter. They said the claims were stereotyping them instead.

The court filing on Tuesday halted funding that was allocated for FEMA’s SSP in New York City, which, among other services, included providing shelter for recently arrived migrants. The filing alleged that the funds were misused by city agencies who sought to facilitate illegal activities inside city-run shelters, including the Roosevelt Hotel. 

Also Read: Law Enforcement Can’t Confirm the Tren de Aragua Gang is in New York City

The filing, acknowledging it cannot share details due to ongoing investigations, claimed that some of the crimes being facilitated by the FEMA funds were gun and drug sales as well as sex trafficking. It also named the “Diablos de la 42,” (Devils of 42nd Street), a youth gang believed to be members of TDA, as one of the groups participating in these activities, and said that the hotel had housed the killer of Laken Riley.  

D., 26,  is a single parent and has a 5-year-old son at the hotel.  He said that other residents had heard the accusations of TDA members living in the hotel through social media. “They see a tattoo and then people assume you are a member of the gang,” D. said. He added that two months ago a random person accused him of being a TDA member because he was walking around with his sleeves rolled, showing intricate tattoos of Medusa that he obtained from a Queens tattoo parlor. “Now I have to walk around with a glove.”

Another migrant, J., 23, agreed with D.’s concern that all Venezuelans are being boxed under the TDA label. J. arrived in the U.S. in January last year with his wife and two children and has a pending asylum case. 

“If you come here and talk to us you will see that we are trying to work. Sometimes I walk 15 blocks to make a delivery by foot,” he said, showing an Uber Eats account which he set up after obtaining his work permit. “It’s really tough but we are trying to make it because it costs money to get a bike and to register it.” While his daughters are in school, his wife works selling food during the day, he said.

In the aftermath of Hamilton’s announcement, Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller, said during a press conference Wednesday that withdrawing the funds was done with no legal power. “This is the federal government having already allocated, authorized, awarded, invoiced, and paid $80.5 million to the city of New York and then Elon Musk, with no legal authority, seizing it back from the city of New York.”

Also Read: 600,000 Venezuelans Could Face Deportation as Trump Ends TPS Extension

He called on the NYC Corporation Counsel and Mayor Eric Adams to work with the attorney general to determine if the revocation of the funding violates a recent court order issued by a Rhode Island judge that halted Trump’s federal freeze. He added that he had spoken with Attorney General Leticia James regarding the freeze of payments. 

Lander also added that Elon Musk’s claim that $59 million had been sent to be used in Luxury hotels was unfounded and said an audit confirmed the hotel program had been completely bid. 

In a report last year Lander’s office found the average daily cost of hotel rooms paid by the Department of Homeless Services was $156 dollars, which is “in line with market data of comparable hotels.” Speaking at the press conference, Lander maintained that the federal budget set a limit of $12.50 per night, leaving the city to pay the remainder. “So the federal government was not paying extraordinary prices,” he said. 

J. added that he is very grateful for the shelter the hotel provided adding that many of the families residing are already dealing with the rumors that they could be deported back to Venezuela. “Many people have already left the shelter,” he said, adding that it used to take him three days to travel from the coast of Venezuela to buy a pound of harina, rice and pasta. “Sometimes I would eat chipi chipi [clam soup] the whole month,” he said. “People will say Venezuela is good but as soon as we get there we will probably be put in jail.” 

Actual TDA members are most likely living in other places, D. hypothesized, saying they are likely wearing good clothes, as opposed to living in a city-run shelter that is open to city agencies. “We are all being punished,” he said, “for the mistakes of one person.”