The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has suspended funding for migrant shelters as it investigates possible misuse of the funds to support illegal immigrants involved in human smuggling, according to a letter from FEMA Acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton.

The letter, reviewed by the Associated Press earlier this month, stated that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has “significant concerns” that migrant shelters like those established by Gov. Maura Healey (D-Mass.) have illegally used taxpayer FEMA funds to aid in smuggling illegal immigrants into the U.S.

Hamilton’s letter demands that all recipients of FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program grants provide a list of all migrants served by the shelter, complete with contact information and a list of services they have received.

Shelter directors are required to submit the information within thirty days of the letter, sent on March 11, and FEMA funds will not be distributed to the shelters during the investigation.

The letter reportedly raised concerns that the shelters could be committing a felony offense by smuggling illegal immigrants into the U.S. and transporting them while they are in the U.S. illegally.

Shelter executives must also sign sworn statements confirming that they are neither aware nor even suspicious that anyone in their organization violated the law.

Although the letter did not specifically threaten criminal prosecution on the basis of the investigation, it could lead to felony prosecutions for anyone complicit in the alleged human smuggling.

The Maine Wire has previously covered Massachusetts’ illegal immigrant shelters that became taxpayer-funded hubs for crime, including domestic violence, drugs, illegal firearm possession, and child sexual abuse.

In a particularly appalling incident, one illegal immigrant, Ronald Joseph, allegedly repeatedly raped his 14-year-old daughter both on the way to the U.S. from Mexico and while in the U.S. after being allowed in under the Biden Administration, eventually getting her pregnant.

Although he was eventually arrested eight months after The Maine Wire first published a report detailing the alleged crimes, the Healey Administration’s initial actions appeared to be an attempt to cover up his crimes.

Instead of arresting Joseph at the time, the Healy Administration hired him a taxpayer-funded Lyft ride to the Queen Street Shelter in Worcester, Mass. Joseph is far from the only criminal illegal alien who was able to live off taxpayer funds in Massachusetts’s shelter program.