The Department of Homeland Security fired Mary Comans last month over an$ 80 million grant to New York City that was meant to reimburse the city for housing illegal immigrants in hotels — an action the Trump administration called illegal.
But, in a lawsuit filed against DHS and FEMA on Tuesday, Comans said she was “unlawfully terminated from her place” without due process or the opportunity to “appropriately answer” to the charges leveled against her. She more alleged that officers from Elon Musk ‘s , Department of Government Effectiveness, which afterwards slammed her for sending out the money, had reassured her that distributing them was the right course of action.
Comans was fired “illegally … for doing exactly what I was directed to do by the Trump social officials at the Department of Homeland Security and at the DOGE”, she told CBS News in an appointment Thursday. ​ ​” They told me to do these actions, to make these payments, and then they fired me”.
Comans said she spoke with DOGE individual Brad Smith on Feb. 5, claiming that he delivered “very evident” guidelines to keep the money “flowing” and that “FEMA was doing the proper point in continuing” the payment.
Then, days later, Comans said she was blindsided by Musk’s social media post slamming FEMA for” sending this money” and “violating , the law” . ,
She quickly reversed the$ 80 million in payment and was reassured by managing that her work was safe, Comans alleged. The following morning, Comans said, a classmate informed her she had been fired.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has also argued that the funds given to his town was not improperly handed out by FEMA. The national payouts were appropriated to the Big Apple by the Biden presidency as part of FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program to provide financial support for the town, which was overwhelmed by a wave of illegal refugees.  ,
When President Donald Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order prohibiting the distribution of public advantages to people living in the country illegally, including resources from the Shelter and Services Program intended to charge costs related to illegal immigration. It was under this order that Musk, FEMA, and DHS officials said the$ 80 million disbursement violated the law. The Trump administration rescinded the$ 80 million from New York City after the payments were made in January.  ,
However, Adams, a Democrat, has said the$ 80 million was not illegal because it was approved to be distributed before Trump’s inauguration.
FULL LIST OF Professional Directions, ACTIONS, AND PROCLAMATIONS TRUMP HAS MADE AS PRESIDENT
” The$ 80 million was approved, paid for, and then rescinded, all while our city spent more than$ 7 billion of our own funds over the last three years”, Adams said last month.  ,
New York City mounted its own lawsuit to claw back the$ 80 million in February.  ,
