Americans were shocked earlier this week after it came to light that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spent $59 million on housing illegal migrants in luxury hotels.

Their outrage was shared by President Donald Trump, who recently moved to fire the officials involved. 

Four people have been terminated

According to the Daily Caller, those terminations were confirmed via a statement provided on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security.

"Effective immediately, FEMA is terminating the employment of four individuals for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels for migrants," the statement read.

It explained that the fired individuals included FEMA's chief financial officer along with a pair of program analysts and one grant specialist.

"Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS will not sit idly and allow deep state activists to undermine the will and safety of the American people," the statement went on to declare.

Elon Musk says expenditure "violated the law"

The $59 million expenditure was first made public by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who also heads the Department of Government Efficiency.

The @DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants.

Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order.

That money is meant for American disaster relief…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2025

"The [DOGE] team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants," Musk stated on Monday.

"Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order," the Trump administration figure pointed out.

"That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals! A clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds," he added. 

DOGE saves nearly a billion dollars at the Department of Education

This was far from being the only example of wasteful spending which DOGE has identified in recent days, as the department announced on Tuesday that it had canceled nearly $1 billion worth of contracts at the Department of Education.

Breitbart reported that this included 29 contracts for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs (DEI) programs valued at $101 million.

A DOGE social media post stated that one program "sought to train teachers to 'help students understand / interrogate the complex histories involved in oppression, and help students recognize areas of privilege and power on an individual and collective basis.'"