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A NYC council member has slammed Mayor Eric Adams ‘ scheme to hand out debit cards to asylum seekers, saying it offers a ‘clear incentive’ for migrants to move to the city. Vickie Paladino, who represents District 19 of Northeast Queens, said she had heard from migrants herself that they are flocking to the city for free money. The cards are preloaded with a week’s worth of funds and will be rolled out to 115 families, equivalent to 450 people by the end of this week. Mayor Eric Adams is pressing ahead with the $53 million scheme, despite a furious backlash amid fears the cards are open to abuse.
Speaking to Fox News, Paladino said: ‘Regardless of our rhetoric about how ‘full’ the city has become, if we’re handing out free money it’s a clear incentive.’ She continued: ‘We hear it from many of the migrants themselves — they’re coming here because they know New York will give them welfare. ‘It’s as simple as that. And that is absolutely the opposite message we should be sending now. ‘In districts like mine, which spans both low-income working-class neighborhoods to some of the wealthiest communities in NYC, migrant crime is a top concern for everyone. ‘We’re seeing a massive increase in crimes attributable to migrants. It’s becoming absolutely third-world.”
‘It assumes that we’re somehow obligated to provide illegals with welfare to begin with. We are not.’ Adams has admitted that despite his program, the city cannot take on any more migrants, saying there ‘is no room’ for migrants as far back as last July. The new program goes against that, according to Paladino, saying that even migrants already here will face the consequences of more arrivals. Paladino added: ‘This is untraceable free money being handed out to people who don’t belong here in the first place. ‘It’s madness. It’s going to create a black market and all kinds of negative incentive structures.’
Paladino also said that her own constituents are ‘sick of the invasion’, referring to migrants who have moved to the city. The debit cards can only be used at supermarkets and bodegas. A family of four with two children could receive up to $350 per week, depending on the children’s ages. Participants will also have to sign an affidavit swearing they will only use the cards for food or baby supplies at the risk of being removed from the program In the last two years 180,000 asylum seekers entered New York, with 65,000 still in shelters.
Adams insists the debit cards will save the city $600,000 a month , or $7.2 million annually, by allowing migrants to spend money that will go back into the local economy instead of the city spending funds on boxes of food. In a report by The New York Post earlier this week, the outlet reported that it could cost as much as $10,000 per migrant. The $53 million is not the total cost – rather, it is only the fee that Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi) will receive for its services, as explicitly stated in the contract.
City Hall has actually given itself the flexibility to disburse at least $2.5 billion on the pre-paid debit cards over a year. Council member Joseph Borelli told Fox News Digital said that while the program may be cheaper for the city, it was ‘fundamentally unfair’ to the working poor. Adams’ decision to award the contract for the debit cards to Mobility Capital Finance on an emergency basis without competitive bids from other companies has also raised eyebrows.
His administration was criticized for entering into the $434 million contract with DocGo, a medical services company whose work on the migrant crisis has been mired in controversy. Adams has spent $570,000 on the contract so far, including a $125,000 starting fee for the company, advance funds for the cards and $3 per card to create them. CEO Wole Coaxum insisted the digital coding on the cards ensures they will only work in preapproved stores, with families also being asked to save receipts.
His said company has worked on universal basic income cards in other cities, including Los Angeles and Newark, N.J. where they were not abused. The city can remove people from the program if they are found to be committing fraud. Officials intend to gather data on the first families to receive the cards before rolling it out further. New York’s deputy mayor for health and human services, Anne Williams-Isom defended the scheme, saying ‘it’s not putting groups against each other’ as there are other programs such as food stamps and cash assistance for native New Yorkers. ‘I do struggle with why people are being so negative when it comes to providing something so basic for families with children,’ she said.
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