New York City has begun handing out prepaid debit cards to illegal immigrant families to purchase essential goods, such as food and baby supplies. According to reports, the office of New York City Mayor Eric Adams confirmed that a group of migrant families had received the taxpayer-funded cards on Monday.
Reportedly, the pilot program to provide migrants with the prepaid cards will cost approximately $53 million. The mayor’s office confirmed that families of four with two children under five will receive up to $350 per week. The city is anticipated to expand the number of families receiving the payouts to over 450 by next week.
According to Adams’ office, the participants in the migrant program are only permitted to use the funds at locations such as grocery stores, supermarkets, bodegas, etc., to ensure the money is genuinely spent on necessities. As the usage of the cards will be monitored, those who violate these terms abuse them could lose access to the program.
“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,” according to a statement from a city hall spokesperson. “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.”
Despite the seemingly hefty price tag of roughly $53 million, the representative claimed it would ultimately be a cost-saving endeavor for New York City taxpayers. The spokesperson cited figures claiming it would free up hundreds of thousands of taxpayer funds on a monthly basis.
“Not only will this provide families with the ability to purchase fresh food for their culturally-relevant diets and the baby supplies of their choosing, but the pilot program is expected to save New York City taxpayers more than $600,000 per month and $7 million per year,” the spokesperson continued. “The prepaid cards can be used exclusively at select stores to ensure the money is spent on food and baby supplies.”
Mayor Adams spoke about the program, suggesting it would cut migrants costs and eliminate food waste. “We found that the food delivery service that we set up during the emergency – we could find a better way to do it in our belief that we want to cut 20% of the migrant costs. So we have a pilot project with 500 people that we are giving them food cards, so instead of a debit card, instead of having to deliver food, and have people eat food — we were seeing wasting food — they’re now able to get their own food, that is going to be spent $12 a day,” according to Adams.
Adams further explained that if the programs prove to be successful, they would be expanded to include a larger number of migrants. “So we are going to save money on delivery, we’re going to save money on people wasting food, and this is a pilot project we’re going to use that is going to save us $6.7 million a year,” the mayor continued. “And if the pilot turns out to be successful, then we’re going to expand it not only with the migrants and asylum seekers, we’d look to do that expansion throughout the entire system — trying to find smarter, more cost — effective ways to deal with this crisis that was dropped in our lap.”
Featured image credit: Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, and MTA Chair & CEO Janno Lieber announce a Subway Safety Plan at Fulton Transit Center on Fri., February 18, 2022…(Marc A. Hermann / MTA)
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