Following President-elect Donald Trump’s landslide victory in the 2024 presidential election, Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Thursday that the city is ending its free debit card program for illegal immigrants in the city’s shelters.
In March, New York City’s administration announced a $53 million prepaid debit card pilot program intended to cover the cost of daily food and baby supplies for illegal immigrants housed in city shelters.
According to Fox News, the pre-paid debit cards were distributed each week to illegal immigrants in a four-week hotel shelter system. Under the program, a family of four with two children under the age of five was eligible for up to roughly $350 per week.
Fox News reported that New York City officials claimed the pre-paid debit card program would save the city roughly $600,000 per month compared to the cost of providing food for illegal immigrants in city shelters.
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“Through the immediate response cards pilot program, we were able to reduce food waste, redirect millions of dollars to our local economy, and provide more culturally relevant food to more than 2,600 migrant families in our care,” Adams said in a statement obtained by Fox 5. “As we move towards more competitive contracting for asylum seeker programs, we have chosen not to renew the emergency contract for this pilot program once the one-year term concludes.”
When the pre-paid debit card program was announced in March, Kayla Mamalek, an Adams spokeswoman, claimed that the pre-paid debit cards would ultimately save the city money by replacing the city’s former system of distributing boxes of non-perishable foods to illegal immigrant families, which the administration said were “often discarded.” The Post Millennial reported that the former food distribution system was also criticized for including food that was not “culturally sensitive” to illegal immigrant families.
According to Fox News, over 200,000 illegal immigrants and other migrants have arrived in New York City since 2022, which has overwhelmed the city as it has attempted to provide food, shelter, and other resources.
