New York City is expanding debit cards pre-loaded with cash for migrant families staying in hotels funded by taxpayer money. Mayor Eric Adams‘s administration plans to give these cards to over 7,300 migrants over the coming six months, at an estimated cost of $2.6 million. This is a significant expansion of an earlier pilot program that initially provided cards to about 3,000 migrants.
Mayor Adams defended the initiative, labeling it a “cost savings measure” that temporarily replaces the existing system of providing non-perishable food boxes to migrant families. The program is a collaboration between the Adams administration and Mobility Capital Finance.
According to reports, a family of four with children under five can receive up to $350 per week, or approximately $18,200 annually.
However, critics including New York Council member Joseph Borelli argue that the debit card program is “fundamentally unfair” to the city’s working poor, who do not receive similar benefits. Borelli and other Republicans warn the city’s right to shelter law and its ‘sanctuary’ policies are attracting a record number of migrants to New York.
Conservative lawmakers also complain the weekly $350 provided to migrants surpasses the average monthly $291 given to low-income, elderly, and disabled U.S. citizens through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Over the past year, more than 183,000 asylum seekers have arrived in NYC amid a surge in illegal immigration under Joe Biden. The Big Apple is reportedly set to break $10 billion in spending on migrants.
New York City has spent vast sums meals for migrants each month, but thousands end up thrown away.
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