New York City officials are defending a pilot program launched this week that will hand thousands of taxpayer dollars to illegal migrants in preloaded debit cards.
The controversial $53 million plan is moving ahead despite the outcry from residents and others who are criticizing the prioritizing of the needs of migrants over those of New York City residents.
“We can take a look at it after six weeks and see what’s working and what’s not,” Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said at a press conference Tuesday as cards began to be handed out at the city’s Roosevelt Hotel shelter on Monday.
“There is no free money. These are not ATM cards. You can’t take cash out,” Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy insisted.
Mayor Eric Adams was asked if the scheme sends a “mixed message” to migrants who are at once being told not to cross the border because there is no room in New York City’s overcrowded shelters while promising that the government will provide their needs.
“It sends a mixed message when it’s distorted,” Adams responded.
“The program, which the mayor’s office confirmed will provide migrant families of four with two children under 5 with up to $350 each week until the end of their stay, began with a limited number of families on Monday and will expand to about 115 families, or roughly 460 people, over the next week,” Fox News reported.
“The prepaid cards may only be used at bodegas, grocery stores, supermarkets and convenience stores. Migrants eligible for the program must sign an affidavit stating they will only spend the funds on food and baby supplies, or else they could lose access to the funds, Adams’ office said,” Fox News added.
A city hall spokesperson described the program to Fox News Digital as a “cost-saving measure [that] will replace the city’s current system of providing non-perishable food boxes to migrant families staying in hotels, much of which is often discarded.”
“A large part of our success is due to our constant work to find new ways to better serve the hundreds of individuals and families arriving every single day, as well as the longtime New Yorkers experiencing homelessness who are already in our care,” the spokesperson added. “That is why we are excited to launch an innovative, cost-saving pilot program with Mobility Capital Finance to distribute pre-paid cards to migrant families to purchase only food and baby supplies.”
The spokesperson noted that the plan provides the illegal migrants with the ability to buy “food for their culturally-relevant diets,” but will somehow “save New York City taxpayers more than $600,000 per month and $7 million per year.”
Fox News’s Bryan Llenas reported in February that the program would actually be giving out “more than two times the amount the state gives monthly in services for single veterans.”
Rapper and native New Yorker 50 Cent was among the many critics of the program, writing on Instagram in February, “WTF Mayor Adams call my phone.”
“I don’t understand how this works, somebody explain this. I’m stuck, maybe TRUMP is the answer,” he had suggested.
“A lot of New Yorkers are going to take this as something that’s fundamentally unfair,” Joseph Borelli, the City Council’s Republican minority leader, said. “There are plenty of New Yorkers struggling to pay their bills.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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