DHS juggles 'mass deportation' push with Helene relief, adds $124M after Biden backlash

Secretary Kristi Noem's latest $28 million allocation formally offered Sunday brings the month's total to $124 million in funds from FEMA, which sits within DHS, for the deadly Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Florida's Big Bend and devastated the Smokies.

The funding will go to road repairs and critical infrastructure restoration - which is especially needed in North Carolina and Tennessee.

"Under President Trump and Secretary Noem's leadership, FEMA is moving faster than ever before to get Americans the relief they need. This move to continue supporting North Carolina victims of Hurricane Helene is a testament to that fact."

Trump alleged that more conservative areas - of which the western half of North Carolina has many, with the notable exception of Asheville - were wrongly being underserved by the feds.

Biden, however, rejected the claim, cutting off a reporter who asked him about it at the time.

Republicans also lambasted then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas when he claimed FEMA was running out of funds amid allegations the agency spent large sums on the migrant crisis, according to the New York Post.

"FEMA's non-disaster-related presence at the border has always been of major concern to me, even before Hurricane Helene, and I will continue to condemn their deployment of personnel to the southern border, but we must separate the two issues," Edwards said, while adding that the agency informed him they had enough money for recovery needs.

"Secretary Mayorkas' statement indicating otherwise was an irresponsible attempt to politicize a tragedy for personal gain," Edwards said.

Trump later told a campaign rally in Pennsylvania that Biden's response to Helene was worse than what followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Then-President George W. Bush was memorably lambasted for praising then-FEMA Director Michael Brown's response - remarking "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job," Bush said while surveying recovery efforts in Mobile.