An immigrant family with two children under 17 could receive up to $15,200 a year thanks to New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ $53 million debit card plan.
The Immediate Response Card initiative will see the city partner with New Jersey bank Mobility Capital Finance to provide prepaid cards to new arrivals to allow them to purchase food and baby items in place of current food services at shelters.
Under the plan, a single migrant could receive $345 a month, while a family of eight could receive $2,203 a month, according to a new cost breakdown seen by The New York Post.
Likewise, a family of three could receive $932 per month and a family of four could receive $1,195 per month to spend on food at local grocery stores, supermarkets and bodegas.
No start date has been set for the plan, but the pilot program will include 500 families at the Roosevelt Hotel and could eventually include up to 6,500 families, and officials say it will save $600,000 a month and $7.2 million a year.
The new plan has been highly controversial and Mayor Eric Adams was forced to defend it earlier this month.
Wole Coaxum is the founder and CEO of Mobility Capital Finance, which has partnered with the city to deliver the plan.
Benefits increase for those with small children. A family with a child under five years old receives $100 more per month or $36 for a child between five and 17 years old.
Meanwhile, a pregnant asylum seeker can also receive an additional $36 a month on prepaid cards.
Following backlash earlier this month, Adams defended the plan, explaining that currently, each migrant meal costs $11, so feeding a family of four for a day could cost up to $132.
“Not only will this give families the ability to purchase fresh foods for their culturally relevant diets and the baby items of their choice, but the pilot program is expected to save New York City more than $600,000 per month, or more than $7.2 million a year,’ said Kayla Mamelak, an Adams spokeswoman.
The mayor added that the program, which is being developed with 500 immigrant families currently residing in the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, will prevent food waste.
Immigrants, he said, will be able to buy the food they want to eat, instead of wasting some of what the city has been providing them because they don’t like it.
The cards, which are prepaid debit cards – “not an American Express card,” Adams clarified – are intended to be used exclusively for immigrants’ food and baby items.
Additionally, Adams maintains that the funds will be injected back into the local New York economy. Immigrants, again in theory, will only be able to use the cards at local bodegas, delis and grocery stores.
At the end of the video, Adams said the plan is “saving us money.”
Adams promises the plan will actually save taxpayers money and prevent food waste.
Embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams attempted to clear up some unflattering misconceptions about his administration’s plan to give illegal immigrants prepaid debit cards in exchange for a dime from city taxpayers.
But questions have been raised about the plan and the choice of partner bank.
The New York Post reported that the fine print of the contract leaves open the option for the program to become a multimillion-dollar deal of indefinite duration.
And the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development reportedly did not go through the usual competitive bidding process before awarding the job to Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi).
As the Post notes, the contract for the pilot program says that MoCaFi was “referred to HPD by the City Council.”
Adams said earlier this month that he met with MoCaFi founder, former JPMorgan Chase CEO Wole Coaxum, during the election campaign.
But MoCaFi has no experience running these types of programs; Instead, the company typically focuses on third-party prepaid debit cards and bank accounts that are marketed to minorities.
Coaxum is a big supporter of universal basic income and left-wing banking, he said, when the 2014 murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson inspired him to serve the “unbanked.”
The debit card program is the City Council’s latest attempt to address the current immigration crisis.
More than 170,000 immigrants have arrived in the city since spring 2022 and the crisis is only deepening as they continue to be bused from Texas, where record numbers are arriving.
Adams told Fox 5’s Rosanna Scotto earlier this week that “we’re getting close to 2,500 to a maximum of 4,000 a week.”
More than 170,000 immigrants have arrived in the city since spring 2022
Adams has said the pilot program would begin with 500 families housed at the Roosevelt Hotel immigrant shelter and would cost $52 million.
‘What happens when there is no more space?’ Scotto asked at one point in the interview, during which the 63-year-old Brownsville native sat across from her, in front of several American flags and a New York flag.
“We weren’t just saying we ran out of space as a comment,” Adams responded, citing the more than 161,000 immigrants who have arrived and sought help from the city since spring 2022.
“We have literally run out of space,” declared the Democrat. “People will end up sleeping on the streets.”
Meanwhile, it was revealed earlier this year that a record number of migrants crossed the US southern border in December, surpassing the highest number under President Biden.
Republicans have seized on border security issues as a major 2024 election issue, becoming a political headache for President Biden.