We’ve been hearing reports that a program like this was on the way, but now it has officially gotten off the ground. In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams’ scheme to hand out prepaid debit cards to illegal migrants is officially up and running. The cards, worth up to $350 per week to couples with children under the age of five, will be replenished with cash four times per month. The initial rollout was very small in scale, with only eight cards being handed out over the weekend, but they plan to expand that to 115 cards by the end of the week and continue to grow the program from there. Shockingly, Adams had the audacity to tell reporters that this program was actually going to save money for the city’s taxpayers. We’ll look at his twisted logic in a moment. (NY Post)
The Adams administration launched its program to give prepaid debit cards to New York City migrants this week — two months after inking a controversial no-bid $53 million contract for the deal.
Staffers with the New Jersey company, Mobility Capital Finance, handed out eight preloaded Mastercards at the Roosevelt Hotel on Monday as part of its pilot program that will expand to 115 cards by next week, according to a City Hall spokesperson.
The one-year deal came under fire after The Post first revealed the contract was inked without a typical bidding process.
Charlie Kirk nicely put the situation in context, asking what other (legal) families facing financial distress might do with this sort of free government payday.
How much could your family do with an extra $1,400 a month (almost $17,000 a year)? Because that’s what New York City is giving away to migrants as a prize for coming here illegally.
Also, a startup founded by a former JP Morgan banker gets a $2 million no-bid contract for…
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) March 26, 2024
Everything about this scheme stinks. As noted above, the program is being handled by a startup company that was awarded the initial $2 million contract without going through the normal bidding process. That’s a pretty nice payday when your only responsibility is to crank out plastic cards that give away other people’s money to illegal aliens and deliver them to the city.
Now that the city has opened up the cash spigot, it will be difficult to turn it off. It’s estimated that there are currently 64,500 illegal migrants in the city. What will the mayor say to the other 64,000 of them after a few hundred have been given these cards? Of course, to cover them all, New York’s taxpayers will be looking at a bill of more than $90 million per month. And that’s on top of all the other costs being incurred by the migrants, along with the hotels and other public services that are no longer available to legal residents or tourists.
Meanwhile, it is currently estimated that there are somewhere between 500 and 2,500 homeless veterans in the Big Apple. (The exact number is difficult to pin down.) How many of them will be receiving this “free money?” The answer to that question is zero, of course. But if you’re a former Venezuelan gang member who is having trouble getting your new robbery and black market operation up and running in Manhattan, fear not. Help is on the way.
As to all of the “savings” that Adams is talking about, it’s just more smoke and mirrors. He was referring to the cost of delivering food to the migrants in all of the various shelters, much of which winds up being thrown away uneaten. They will be able to stop delivering boxes of food to the migrants who get cards, so it is theoretically “cheaper” than what they are currently doing. But do you know what would cost even less? Sending them all home and saving all of that money to feed and care for homeless citizens. But we couldn’t do that, could we?
Every legal citizen with the ability to get out of New York City should do so as soon as possible. Your lives are not a priority to the municipal government. Only the illegal migrants matter. Flee while you can and let the Mayor and the members of the City Council pay for the care of these migrants out of their own pockets. That would put an end to this madness overnight.