Migrant Debit Cards: Mayor Adams Explains How They Will Benefit the City

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New York's mayor Eric Adams is justifying taxpayer dollars to pay for migrants' debit cards as a more efficient means of feeding the Big Apple's newest residents.

With thousands of meals intended for migrants uneaten and wasted, New York City leaders are piloting a program to distribute debit cards, allowing migrant families to create their own foods and purchase baby items. Program participants are asked to sign an affidavit that they will use the card to purchase only food and/or baby items or risk being removed from the program.

Andrew Ross Sorkin asked the mayor, "Well, one of the things you are doing is an experimental program to provide debit cards with cash on the card. This has created an enormous controversy in the city among some taxpayers who say why are we paying and giving out this money to these migrants, and isn't this only going to encourage more migrants to come to New York?"

"The reason it's created such controversy is because [of] how it has been reported and distorted," Adams told CNBC on Friday. "We are required to feed migrants and asylum-seekers, as well as everyone else in our homeless system. ... About 40,000 are in the homeless system that are not migrants and asylum-seekers."

The mayor continued, "And so what I told the team to do is we have to find a way to do it that's less costly — because we’re doing a 30 percent decrease in the cost of the migrant crisis — and that we don't have food waste. We were able to do that. We are saving approximately $600,000 a month, $7.2 million a year by giving individuals a card that allows them to buy food or baby supplies, spending $13 a day on food. That's cheaper, that's less food waste. This is a real win‑win for us."

The mayor also stated that this decision would aid the city's economy by reasoning, "And the money will go into the local economy because now we're going to the local stores, supermarkets where we're going to hire local. This is a smart way to bring down the cost and replace the money back into our city."