The first batch of these cards, intended for the purchase of food and baby supplies, was distributed on Monday to a select group of migrant families, as confirmed by the office of New York City Mayor Eric Adams to Fox News Digital.
This initiative is part of a $53 million pilot program designed to provide prepaid credit cards to migrant families housed in hotels, despite public opposition. The program, confirmed by the mayor's office, will provide migrant families of four, with two children under the age of five, up to $350 each week until the end of their stay. The program commenced with a limited number of families on Monday and is expected to expand to approximately 115 families, or roughly 460 individuals, over the next week.
The prepaid cards are restricted for use at bodegas, grocery stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores. To be eligible for the program, migrants must sign an affidavit affirming they will only spend the funds on food and baby supplies. Failure to comply could result in loss of access to the funds, as stated by Adams' office.
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The mayor's office also confirmed that the pilot program was launched using a phased approach, beginning with a few hotels. City officials have indicated that the cards will be loaded with one week's worth of funds at a time and their use will be monitored.
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The cards are being distributed at the city’s arrival center, the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, to migrant families residing in hotels being used as emergency shelters. The city has partnered with New Jersey company Mobility Capital Finance to manage the program.
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A city hall spokesperson expressed excitement about the launch of the program to Fox News Digital, describing it 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.
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The spokesperson stated, "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." They further added, "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."
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Under the pilot program, which is expected to last for six weeks, migrants could receive more money from the city than the state provides to low-income and elderly New Yorkers under SNAP benefits. According to the state's website, single households are eligible for up to $291 a month in SNAP benefits aimed at providing "low-income working people, senior citizens, the disabled and others" money to buy food products.
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The migrant pilot program also distributes more than twice the amount the state provides monthly in services for single veterans, as reported by Fox News's Bryan Llenas last month.
Mayor Adams, a Democrat, has staunchly defended the program and the "misinformation" surrounding it. During a state legislative budget hearing in Albany last month, Adams stated, "We’re not giving people American Express cards." He explained that the program was designed to cut 20% of the migrant costs and save $6.7 million a year.
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The mayor's explanation came during an annual hearing, known as "Tin Cup Day," when mayors make budgetary requests before the state legislature.
New York City's government has projected it will spend at least $10.6 billion on migrants by summer 2025. New York state has already pledged to contribute about $2 billion in the current budget cycle to the migrant crisis, but Adams told lawmakers that the state pledge would only cover one-third of the city’s migrant costs.
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, another Democrat, has suggested the state earmark $2.4 billion to go toward migrant services in the next budget cycle, but the details have not been finalized before the state legislature. Adams' office stated that even the allocation proposed by Hochul would be $600 million short of what the city needs in its next budget cycle, as reported by the New York Daily News last month.
Approximately 180,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since 2022, straining city resources as officials have struggled to find housing for them. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has bused asylum-seekers to New York and other cities to assist them in traveling to sanctuary jurisdictions and to highlight the crisis that border communities face daily.
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