New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday defended a reported $53 million pilot program to distribute prepaid credit cards to immigrant families living in hotels, despite public outcry.
The Democratic mayor, who appeared at a state Legislature budget hearing in Albany on Tuesday, said he was trying to dismiss “misinformation” about the program.
“We’re not giving people American Express cards,” Adams said. “The food delivery service we set up during the emergency showed we could find a better way, driven by the belief that we wanted to reduce immigration costs by 20%. So we launched a pilot project with 500 people. We were giving them food cards, instead of debit cards, so they didn’t have to deliver food or get people to eat food, and we were seeing food waste. They can now get their own food and it’s consumed. It’s $12 a day.”
“So we’re going to save money on deliveries, we’re going to save people money wasting food. And this is a pilot project that we’re going to use, and we’re going to save $6.7 million a year. “It will be,” Adams said. “And if the pilot is successful, we will look to expand it across the system, not just migrants and asylum seekers, and look for smarter, more cost-effective ways to do it.” How to deal with this crisis that has fallen on. ”
New York City distributes $53 million in prepaid credit cards to immigrant families: report
New York City Mayor Eric Adams appeared at a state budget hearing to defend a program that gives immigrants cards that can be used for food and baby supplies. (Distribution via New York State Senate)
Under the pilot program, immigrants would receive 40% more than the state gives low-income and elderly New Yorkers under SNAP benefits.
Each immigrant will receive about $350 a month to spend on food and baby supplies. As Newsweek pointed out, this exceeds the maximum allotment that low-income New Yorkers receive in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. According to the state’s website, single-person households are eligible to receive up to $291 a month in SNAP benefits, which are meant to help “low-income workers, the elderly, people with disabilities, and others” finance the purchase of groceries. .
Immigrants sit in Tompkins Square Park across from the Immigration Reissue Center at St. Brigid’s School in Manhattan on January 5, 2024. (Barry Williams, New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The immigration pilot program pays out more than twice the amount of services the state provides to single veterans each month, according to FOX News’ Brian Lenas.
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The mayor’s explanation came during an annual public hearing known as Tin Cup Day, when mayors present their budget requests to the state Legislature.
Single immigrant men, mostly from West Africa, gather as volunteers distribute food and clothing in Tompkins Square Park in New York City’s East Village neighborhood on January 27, 2024.
Adams testified that the Big Apple’s shelter population has tripled since he took office, and called on the state to cover 50% of the cost of dealing with New York City’s immigration crisis.
New York City government projects to spend at least $10.6 billion on immigration by summer 2025. New York state has already pledged about $2 billion to combat the immigration crisis in the current budget cycle, but Adams told lawmakers Tuesday that the state’s pledge does not extend to that. It would only cover a third of the city’s immigration costs.
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Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, has indicated the state will allocate $2.4 billion for immigrant services in the next budget cycle, but details are not being ironed out until the Legislature. Adams’ office said Hochul’s proposed allocation would still be $600 million short of what the city needs in the next budget cycle, the New York Daily News reported.
