DHS fired FEMA CFO Mary Comans and three other officials without a hearing after Musk criticized migrant-hotel payments

On February 11, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security announced the firing of four FEMA officials, including Chief Financial Officer Mary Comans, two program analysts, and a grant specialist, over the agency's payment of $59 million in Shelter and Services Program grant funds to New York City to help cover migrant-hotel costs. A DHS spokesperson said the employees were terminated "for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels for migrants." DHS offered no evidence for that characterization and did not respond to requests for detail on how the employees had circumvented leadership.

The firings followed public criticism of the payments by then-DOGE head Elon Musk, who accused FEMA on social media of violating the law by sending the funds to New York and said his team would seek to claw the money back. Comans later said in a lawsuit that she had made the payments as directed by Trump political appointees at DHS and at DOGE, and that she reversed the payments after seeing Musk's public criticism; she alleged she was assured her job was safe before being fired the next day. She was terminated without a hearing or the opportunity to respond to the allegations against her, and sued the administration in March 2025 alleging unlawful termination.

The Shelter and Services Program, administered by FEMA in partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, is a congressionally appropriated fund separate from disaster relief, intended to aid cities sheltering migrants; New York City had received $119 million through the program as of the firings.

Updates

2026-07-17 — Federal judge ruled Trump lacked authority to fire Comans without cause [2, 3]

U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff (E.D. Va.) ruled that the administration lacked constitutional authority to remove Comans without cause, rejecting the argument that Article II gives the president plenary power to remove inferior officers. The judge found Comans was entitled to a hearing or reassignment, citing decades of Supreme Court precedent limiting presidential removal power over inferior officers; the ruling did not order her reinstated to her former position.