NYC launches $53 million program to hand out credit cards to migrants, illegal immigrant families to receive nearly $1,000 a month



New York City will soon start handing out pre-paid credit cards to illegal immigrants, according to a new report.

The New York Post reported, "The $53 million pilot program, run by the New Jersey company Mobility Capital Finance, will provide asylum seekers arriving at the Roosevelt Hotel with the city cash to help them buy food, according to city records."

Mobility Capital Finance will provide "Immediate Response Cards" to families being housed in hotels by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

The first pre-paid credit cards will be provided to illegal aliens residing at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan. However, if the program is deemed to be a "success," the city will expand the program to the estimated 15,000 migrant families being housed in NYC hotels.

The cards will only be available for use at bodegas, grocery stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores. The migrants reportedly must sign an affidavit promising to only spend the money on food or baby supplies or they will be removed from the pilot program.

According to the Daily Mail, "It is unclear how city officials will check if cards are being abused – and if the scheme will worsen the crisis by encouraging other migrants to head to the Big Apple in the hopes of receiving free money."

The amount of available money on the pre-paid cards will vary depending on the size of the family and their income.

A family of four could be supplied with nearly $1,000 each month. The cards will reportedly be refilled every 28 days.

Currently, the city is forking over $11 per meal to feed the illegal immigrants.

The administration of New York City Mayor Eric Adams touted that the program would save the city millions.

“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 more than $600,000 per month, or more than $7.2 million annually,” Adams spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said.

The New York Times reported in December that New York City awarded contractor DocGo with a $432 million no-bid contract to provide illegal immigrants with three meals per day.

However, the outlet noted that more than 70,000 meals had been "wasted" between October 22, 2023, and November 22, 2023.

Mobility Capital Finance CEO Wole Coaxum framed the $53 million program as helping asylum seekers and the local economy.

"MoCaFi looks forward to partnering with New York City to disburse funds for asylum seekers to purchase fresh, hot food," Coaxum said. "MoCaFi’s goal is to expand access to financial resources for individuals excluded from banking, such as asylum seekers, while helping the local economy."

In October, New York City New York City started providing illegal immigrants with one-way airplane tickets to anywhere in an attempt to deal with the Big Apple's migrant crisis.

In November, Mayor Adams announced massive budget cuts for the Big Apple with significant reductions to the NYPD force, education, and libraries. City officials admitted that the deep budget cuts stem from the current migrant crisis, and warned there could be future financial restraints if the illegal immigrant situation continues.

In August, Adams warned that the influx of illegal aliens would cost New York City an estimated $12 billion over the next three years.

Adams – a Democrat – said at the time, "Immigration is the New York story. It is the American story. But as I declared nearly a year ago, we are facing an unprecedented state of emergency due to the asylum seeker crisis."

Adams also said the Big Apple is "past our breaking point" because of a "broken immigration system."

Adams had a much different viewpoint of illegal immigration in October 2021 when he declared New York City a sanctuary city and welcomed undocumented migrants. However, he changed his tune on illegal immigrants after Republican governors in red states began shipping illegal aliens to blue cities that proclaimed to be sanctuary cities.

As of last month, more than 100,000 illegal immigrants have recently been transported to New York City.

New York City is already besieged by a homeless crisis.

"In recent years, homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s," according to the Coalition for the Homeless – the "nation’s oldest advocacy and direct service organization helping homeless individuals and families."

The organization noted, "In November 2023, there were 92,824 homeless people, including 33,365 homeless children, sleeping each night in New York City’s main municipal shelter system. A total of 23,945 single adults slept in shelters each night in November 2023."

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Eric Adams announces sweeping NYC budget cuts due to migrant crisis, slashes NYPD to lowest levels since 1980s



New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced massive budget cuts for the Big Apple with far-reaching cuts to the NYPD force, education, and libraries. City officials say the deep budget cuts stem from the current migrant crisis, and warn there could be future financial restraints if the illegal immigrant situation continues.

Effective immediately, the New York Police Department must freeze all hiring and reduce the number of law enforcement officers from more than 33,000 to 30,000. The last time New York City had fewer than 30,000 officers was in 1984, according to the Independent Budget Office.

Patrick Hendry – NYC’s police union president – warned that the budget cuts would hamper the police department's ability to keep New Yorkers safe.

“This is truly a disaster for every New Yorker who cares about safe streets,” Hendry said. “Cops are already stretched to our breaking point, and these cuts will return us to staffing levels we haven’t seen since the crime epidemic of the ’80s and ’90s. We cannot go back there.”

While he was a mayoral candidate, Adams made campaign promises to beef up the police force and railed against the "Defund the Police" movement.

The New York Fire Department will have overtime limited. Any civilian and light-duty firefighter vacancies will be eliminated.

The budget cuts will slash the budget of the New York City Education Department by more than $1 billion – $547 million will be cut this fiscal year and another $600 million in 2025, according to Fox 5 New York. The outlet added, "There will be expansive 5% budget cuts at every city agency, which are expected to happen again two more times next year."

The city’s Summer Rising program – which provides children with recreational activities during the summer months – will be forced to reduce hours for middle school students.

The New York Times reported that the city is "eliminating thousands of spots for universal prekindergarten for 3-year-olds" and " community schools are being cut by $10 million in the current fiscal year."

Michael Mulgrew – president of the United Federation of Teachers – noted that the budget restraints would cause 653 schools to make midyear budget cuts — approximately 43% of the school system.

Mulgrew declared, "Class sizes will rise, and school communities will be needlessly damaged."

The NYC school system has already been stressed due to the migrant crisis after an additional 8,000 students enrolled in the city's public school system this year – the first enrollment increase in eight years.

Starting in December, public libraries will close branches on Sundays because of the budget cuts.

NYC library leaders stated, "We also will be reducing spending on library materials, programming, and building maintenance and repairs. Without sufficient funding, we cannot sustain our current levels of service, and any further cuts to the libraries’ budgets will, unfortunately, result in deeper service impacts."

Adams described the budget cuts as "the most painful exercise I’ve ever done in my professional life."

Adams said on Tuesday, "It is more than painful for New Yorkers — it’s painful for us. I’ve seen a great deal of just personal pain from the members of my team. These are initiatives that we fought hard for."

Adams called on the Biden administration to provide federal aid to the city for the migrant influx.

“No city should be left to handle a national humanitarian crisis largely on its own, and without the significant and timely support we need from Washington, D.C., today’s budget will be only the beginning," Adams said in a statement.

“For months, we have warned New Yorkers about the challenging fiscal situation our city faces,” Adams continued. “To balance the budget as the law requires, every city agency dug into their own budget to find savings, with minimal disruption to services,” he said. “And while we pulled it off this time, make no mistake: Migrant costs are going up, tax revenue growth is slowing and COVID stimulus funding is drying up.”

Adams warned that there would be even more budget cuts if the federal government doesn't provide more financial and logistical aid for the surge of illegal immigrants.

New York City has already spent $1.45 billion on the "asylum seeker humanitarian crisis."

Adams said the migrant crisis would cost New York City an estimated $11 billion over the next two years.

An estimated 10,000 illegal immigrants have recently funneled into New York City per month.

While on the campaign trail, Adams proclaimed that New York City would be a sanctuary city.

In October 2021, Adams declared: "We should protect our immigrants. Period. Yes, New York City will remain a sanctuary city under an Adams administration."

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New York City now provides one-way airplane tickets to illegal immigrants to anywhere they want to go in the world



New York City has started providing illegal immigrants with one-way airplane tickets to anywhere in an attempt to deal with the Big Apple's migrant crisis.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams' spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak told the Washington Examiner on Friday, "With no sign of a decompression strategy in the near future, we have established a reticketing center for migrants. Here, the city will redouble efforts to purchase tickets for migrants to help them take the next steps in their journeys."

The outlet noted that migrants have already been issued one-way plane tickets, and they are headed to locations including Michigan, Colombia, and Morocco.

Some of the migrants rejected the offer of a one-way flight to anywhere because they wished to stay in NYC to work.

Mayor Adams said, "When you are out of room, that means you’re out of room. Every year, my relatives show up for Thanksgiving, and they want to all sleep at my house. There’s no more room. That’s where we are right now.”

Adams previously proclaimed that New York City would be a sanctuary city.

In October 2021, Adams declared on the campaign trail: "We should protect our immigrants. Period. Yes, New York City will remain a sanctuary city under an Adams administration."

Adams said in August that the migrant crisis would cost the city $12 billion over three years.

However, some say Adams is not being inclusive.

City Council member Shahana Hanif said, "What we’ve witnessed from this administration — even if they’re not directly saying, 'You’ve got to get out of here' — is that they’ve consistently created hysteria and chaos and confusion and have not used a tone of inclusivity and welcome."

Previously, Adams criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for shipping migrants to northern cities and called it a "publicity stunt."

"I think what we're seeing in the city is a political stunt," Adams said. "I thought what really personified that political stunt is the governor of Florida. He has nothing to do with it. I mean what was his purpose of sending a plane load to Martha's Vineyard? He just felt as though he wanted to get into this horrendous action and so we're seeing it this political stunt of this."

"What is happening here in New York City and my concern is … I believe they created it. This is a humanitarian crisis created by human hands and it was a political stunt," Adams said.

"I believe the other day we had eight buses that came in. It is difficult to predict the erratic behavior of an erratic governor," Adams added. "We have no idea what's next for him and what he's going to do so we have to be ready to make sure we comply with our legal and moral obligation."

Airline tickets can actually be cheaper than the costs to house and feed a migrant in New York City, which is said to be $394 a day.

New York City reportedly has had some 132,000 migrants arriving since last year and has been inundated with illegal immigrants seeking shelter.

New York City officials are considering erecting encampments to house the surging population of incoming migrants. The need for migrant housing has increased as hotels designated for illegal immigrants have been overwhelmed.

City officials have recently discussed creating encampments and migrant tent areas in parks such as Central Park and Prospect Park, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Earlier this month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul admitted that the U.S. southern border is "too open" and there is an illegal immigration crisis under President Joe Biden.

A Sienna College poll published on Tuesday found that 58% of New York voters said the influx of illegal immigrants will destroy the city.

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