New York Starts Handing Out Prepaid Debit Cards to Illegal Immigrants

This article originally appeared on The Epoch Times and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Tom Ozimek

New York City officials on Monday started handing out pre-paid debit cards to illegal immigrants as part of a $53 million pilot program that has drawn criticism over whether the prospect of “free money” is incentivizing more unlawful border crossings.

The first batch of the cards were given out on March 25 to a handful of families and that will expand to roughly 460 people by next week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office confirmed to Fox News.

The Epoch Times previously reported on the pre-paid card program, under which New York City awarded a $53 million contract to a company called Mobility Capital Finance to create and distribute the pre-paid cards, called immediate response cards.

Under the program, the cards would first be delivered to the Roosevelt Hotel, the first touchpoint for illegal immigrants arriving in the city, with records indicating that the first to receive the cards will be families with children under the care of NYC’s Housing Preservation and Development agency.

City Hall said that the pre-paid cards can only be used at bodegas, grocery stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores and recipients will have to sign a pledge promising to use the cards only to buy food and baby supplies.

The program has faced criticism, including over the use of taxpayer funds to provide services to people who entered the country by flouting the law, and over fears that they would incentivize illegal immigration.

Mixed Messages?

New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended the use of the prepaid cards during an in-person media availability in Albany on March 26.

Mr. Adams was asked by a reporter whether the prepaid cards provide potential migrants an appealing reason to come to the United States and so whether the program sends a mixed message, given the mayor’s stated attempts to dissuade illegal immigrants from coming to New York City.

“No, it sends a mixed message when it’s distorted,” the mayor replied. He said he gave his team a clear directive to bring down costs related to the provision of services to illegal immigrants in the Big Apple by 30 percent—and that the cards are part of that initiative.

Mr. Adams called the cards a “cost-effective” win-win that saves taxpayers over $600,000 per month, or $7.2 million per year.

“We’re going to do away with food waste and we’re going to put money back into the local economy,” he said.

Mr. Adams argued that criticism isn’t a good enough reason not to press ahead with the program.

“If we didn’t do things because poeple are going to critique us, we wouldn’t have gotten thousands of people off our streets that are homeless, we would not have removed our encampments, we would not have taken thousands of guns off the street,” he said. “We’ve got to do it right.”

Read the full story in The Epoch Times.