Trump shifts disaster fund money over to illegal immigration fight

“The Trump administration’s plan to divert money away from FEMA at the start of hurricane season to continue its efforts to separate and jail migrant families is backwards and cruel," said Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer.

"Once again, this administration is endangering America by moving funds away from emergency management for their extremist border agenda," said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

"As hurricane season approaches, is this really in the best interest of THE AMERICAN PEOPLE?" tweeted Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI).

$155 million is coming out of the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund - all part of the effort to funnel more money to detention and hearing facilities used to process migrants detained by authorities.

"This is massively irresponsible," said Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL).

Money is also being shifted out of the Coast Guard and other accounts inside the Department of Homeland Security, in order to bolster efforts by the White House to house - and then deport migrants.

"This realignment of resources allows DHS to address ongoing border emergency crisis by alleviating the surge along the Nation’s Southwest Border while minimizing the risk to overall DHS mission performance," the department noted in a written statement.

The move comes as the number of people detained after illegally crossing the southern border has dropped in recent months, after it surged over 144,000 in the month of May, dropping back to 82,000 in July.

“This is beyond insensitive,” said Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) of the decision to move money out of FEMA and into illegal immigration efforts.  “It's reckless.”