Immigrant families in New York City have begun receiving prepaid debit cards as part of a controversial plan that could allow them to receive up to $18,200 a year.
Officials began distributing the cards to the first ten new arrivals at the city’s Roosevelt Hotel shelter on Monday.
The cards are preloaded with one week’s worth of funds and will be distributed to 115 families, which is equivalent to 450 people, by the end of the week.
Mayor Eric Adams is moving forward with the $53 million plan, despite a furious backlash amid fears the cards are open to abuse.
Debit cards can only be used in supermarkets and warehouses, said the municipal president. A family of four with two children could receive up to $350 per week, depending on the age of the children.
Immigrant families in New York City have begun receiving prepaid debit cards as part of a controversial plan that could allow them to receive up to $18,200 a year.
Officials began distributing the cards to the first ten new arrivals at the city’s Roosevelt Hotel shelter on Monday.
The cards are preloaded with one week’s worth of funds and will be distributed to 115 families, which is equivalent to 450 people at the end of the week.
Participants will also be required to sign an affidavit swearing that they will only use the cards for food or baby items at the risk of being removed from the program.
But critics, including Adams’ rival in the immigration crisis, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and Queens-born rapper 50 Cent, have questioned why immigrants are receiving the cards before struggling New Yorkers.
Abbott called the “offensive” plan “insanity,” but supporters say it will help the city deal with the strain on its services caused by a surge of immigrants in recent months.
In the past two years, 180,000 asylum seekers entered New York, and 65,000 are still in shelters.
Adams insists that debit cards save the city $600,000 a month, or $7.2 million a year, by allowing immigrants to spend money that will go into the local economy instead of the city spending funds on food boxes.
Joseph Borelli, Republican minority leader on the City Council, acknowledged there would be savings, but questioned the amount being spent on immigrants.
“Many New Yorkers are going to take this as fundamentally unfair,” he told New York Times. “There are many New Yorkers struggling to pay their bills.”
Adams’ decision to urgently award the debit card contract to Mobility Capital Finance without competitive bids from other companies has also attracted attention.
A family of four with two children could receive up to $350 per week, depending on the ages of the children.
Mayor Eric Adams insists the debit cards will save the city $600,000 a month, or $7.2 million a year.
The plans went ahead despite fierce backlash from people including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (left) and Queens-born rapper 50 Cent.
His administration was criticized for entering into the $434 million contract with DocGo, a medical services company whose work on the immigration crisis has been mired in controversy.
Adams has spent $570,000 on the contract so far, including a $125,000 startup fee to the company, advance funding for the cards and $3 per card to create them.
Chief executive Wole Coaxum insisted that the digital coding of the cards ensures that they will only work in pre-approved stores and that families will also be asked to save receipts.
That company has worked on universal basic income cards in other cities, including Los Angeles and Newark, New Jersey, where they were not abused.
“What we’ve found in each of these cases is that people spend the money for the intended purpose,” he said in an interview.
The city can remove people from the program if they are found to be committing fraud. Officials intend to collect data on the first families who will receive the cards before rolling them out further.
New York Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom defended the plan, saying it is “not about pitting groups against each other” as other programs such as food stamps and cash assistance exist for New Yorkers. native people.
“I have a hard time understanding why people are so negative when it comes to providing something so basic to families with children,” she said.
In the past two years, 180,000 asylum seekers entered New York, and 65,000 are still in shelters.
New York Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom defended the plan.
Around 70,000 immigrants were transported by bus or plane to New York City in 2023, putting extreme pressure on the Big Apple’s resources.
Gov. Abbott began sending migrants to New York and other Democratic-run cities that bill themselves as “sanctuaries” for border crossers to show them how much pressure the crisis has put on border states.
Their plan appears to have worked: Democratic lawmakers have now taken a much tougher stance on the crisis, and President Biden himself has promised to take stronger action to address it.