A family of migrants with two children under the age of 17 could be given up to $15,200-a-year under New York City mayor Eric Adams' $53million debit card scheme.
The Immediate Response Card initiative will see the city partner with the New Jersey bank Mobility Capital Finance to give prepaid cards to new arrivals to allow them to buy food and baby supplies instead of the current food services in shelters.
Under the scheme, a single migrant could be given $345 a month, while a family of eight could be given $2,203 a month, according to a new cost breakdown seen by The New York Post.
Likewise, a family of three could receive $932 per month and a family of four could be given $1,195 per month to spend on food at local grocery stores, supermarkets and bodegas.
A start date for the scheme has not been set but the pilot will include 500 families at the Roosevelt Hotel and could eventually include up to 6,500 families, with officials saying it will save $600,000 per month and $7.2 million annually.
Elon Musk was not convinced, sharing a news article about the scheme on X with the caption: 'Wow.'
The allowances are increased for those with young children. A family with a child under five is given $100 more a month or $36 for a child between five and 17.
Meanwhile a pregnant asylum seeker can also receive an extra $36 a month on the pre paid cards.
Following backlash earlier this month, Adams defended the scheme, explaining that at present, each migrant meal costs $11, so feeding a family of four for a day could cost up to $132.
'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,' said Kayla Mamelak, Adams's spokesperson.
The mayor added that the program, which is being rolled out with 500 migrant families currently residing in the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, will avoid food waste.
Migrants, he said, will be able to purchase food they want to eat, as opposed to wasting some amount of what the city has been providing for them because they don't like it.
The cards, which are pre-paid debit cards - 'not an American Express card,' Adams clarified - are intended to be used exclusively for food and baby supplies for the migrants.
Additionally, Adams argues that the funds will be pumped back into the local NYC economy. Migrants, again theoretically, will only be able to use the cards in local bodegas, delis, and grocery stores.
At the end of the video, Adams said the plan is 'saving us bucks.'
But questions have been raised over the scheme and the choice of partner bank.
The New York Post reported that the contract's fine-print leaves the option open for the program to become an open-ended, multi-billion-dollar deal.
And the city's Housing Preservation & Development reportedly did not go through the usual competitive bidding process before awarding the job to Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi).
As the Post notes, the contract for the pilot program says MoCaFi was 'referred to HPD by City Hall.'
Adams said earlier this month that he met MoCaFi's founder, former JPMorgan Chase managing director Wole Coaxum, in the campaign trail.
But MoCaFi does not have experience running this kind of program; instead, the company usually focuses on pre-paid third-party debit cards and bank accounts which are marketed to minorities.
Coaxum is a big supporter of universal basic income and left banking, he said, when the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson inspired him to serve the 'underbanked.'
The debit card program is City Hall's latest attempt to deal with the ongoing migrant crisis.
More than 170,000 migrants have arrived in the city since the spring of 2022 and the crisis is only deepening as they continue to be bussed from Texas where record numbers are entering.
Adams told Fox 5's Rosanna Scotto earlier this week that, 'We're getting close to anywhere from 2,500 to peaking at 4,000 a week.'
'What happens when there's no more room?' Scotto asked at one point during the interview, during which the 63-year-old Brownsville native sat opposite her, in front of several American - and one New York - flags.
'We were not just saying we're out of room as a soundbite,' Adams answered, citing the more than 161,000 migrants whom have arrived and sought city aid since spring 2022.
'We're out of room, literally', the Democrat declared. 'People are going to be eventually sleeping on the streets.'
Meanwhile it was revealed earlier this year that a record number of migrants crossed the U.S. southern border in December, topping the highest amount under President Biden.
Republicans have seized upon border security issues as a main 2024 election issue, which has become a political headache for President Biden.
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