(The Center Square) — New York City is ending its controversial program that gave newly arriving migrants debit cards pre-loaded with money to pay for food, baby supplies and other necessities.
The Adams administration announced on Thursday that it was winding down the program that has distributed more than $3.2 million in debit cards to about 2,600 migrant families living in hotels under the city’s right-to-shelter law.
The mayor didn’t give a reason for ending the program, which will expire by the end of the year, but it comes less than 48 hours after Republican Donald Trump won the White House in a landslide victory by pledging a crackdown on immigration.
“As we move towards more competitive contracting for asylum seeker programs, we have chosen not to renew the emergency contract for this pilot program once the one-year term concludes,” City Hall spokesman William Fowler said in a statement. “We will continue to implement and learn from innovative pilot programs like the immediate response cards program as we care for hundreds of new arrivals every week.”
Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has defended the program as a “cost savings measure” that temporarily replaced New York City’s existing system of providing non-perishable food boxes to migrant families staying in hotels and other city-funded shelters. He has argued that the program saved the city money on providing food to migrants.
The program is a partnership between the Adams administration and Mobility Capital Finance. The company says the plan will help migrants with food, baby supplies and other necessities as they await authorization to work from the federal government. The company has received $400,000 under the agreement.
Under the program, a four-person family with children under five received up to $350 per week, or about $18,200 a year, according to the Adams administration.
But City Comptroller Brad Lander recently revoked the mayor’s ability to fast-track emergency contracts for migrant services. That means Adams would have had to request approval to extend the debit card program.
However, the program has been widely criticized by conservatives who argued it was ripe for waste, fraud and abuse. They said the program was unfair to New York City’s working poor, who don’t receive similar benefits from the city.
Republicans argue that the city’s right-to-shelter law, which requires it to provide housing, food and other necessities — coupled with the city’s ‘sanctuary’ policy cooperation with immigration crackdowns — are drawing a record number of migrants to the city.
New York City has seen more than 183,000 asylum seekers arrive over the past two years amid a historic surge of immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border. Over the past year, the city has spent more than $1 billion on tens of thousands of migrants under its care and expects to spend about $10 billion on migrant costs in coming years.