New York City to stop providing illegal immigrants with prepaid debit cards

By arseniotoledo // 2024-11-14

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New York City (NYC) will no longer be providing illegal immigrants with prepaid debit cards. The program for providing migrants who stay in city-funded hotels with prepaid debit cards to purchase their own food and other necessities involved around 2,600 migrant families and was started back in February. The pilot phase of this program has cost the city's taxpayers over $3.2 million. (Related: New York City provides prepaid debit cards to illegal immigrants.) In a statement, William Fowler, a spokesperson for the city's government, claimed that this program was successful in reducing food waste and redirecting millions of dollars back into the city's economy. It was also able to "provide more culturally relevant food" to the 2,600 migrant families chosen to participate in the program. However, mounting costs make this program untenable. "As we move toward 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," said Fowler, noting that the prepaid debit cards will expire by 2025. "For over two years, we have provided care to more than 222,000 migrants while saving $2 billion in asylum seeker-related costs." "Thanks to our resettlement efforts, intensive case management and national-leading Asylum Application Help Center, more than 160,000 migrants have left our shelter system and taken their next steps towards self sufficiency. 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." The city has estimated that about 700 asylum seekers enter the city each week. The city also claims that about 1,000 leave during the same period.

Program intended to save money ended up costing more

This program was intended by the NYC Council as a means to save money by no longer having to purchase food that illegals did not want to eat, leading to high food waste and more food purchases per migrant. The city claimed it cost half as much as the boxed-meal delivery service it replaced. The cards were distributed to the 2,600 families at the city's main intake center at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. A family of four gets provided around $350 a week worth of spending money to go shopping at local groceries and bodegas – the only places where the prepaid debit cards could be used – for food and baby supplies. The prepaid debit cards were given to the city by the financial technology company Mobility Capital Finance, which was hired by the city for a year-long, no-bid, emergency contract to run the program. It received about $400,000 in payment for its operation of the cards. The office of NYC Mayor Eric Adams did not give a specific reason for why the program is ending. The office added that, when the program ends in January, migrants staying in city-funded hotels will go back to being given boxed meals. The city will no longer be able to enter emergency deals for the handling of migrant services thanks to the intervention of City Comptroller Brad Lander. Watch this video discussing how the conviction of a murderer of a 16-year-old in New York is being hampered by the fact that the killer is a migrant. This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

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Program intended to save money ended up costing more

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