New York City pours more cash into migrant crisis with expanded debit card program

New York City is expected to distribute debit cards for food and baby items to more than 7,300 migrants over the next month as officials look to expand a controversial program designed to assist migrant families staying in city-funded hotels.

The expansion will cost around $2.6 million and include many more migrants over the original 3,000 involved.

The program's reinforcement comes despite criticism that the city should not spend money on illegal immigrants while other budget problems remain. New York City's government previously projected it would spend at least $10.6 billion on migrants by the summer of 2025 and $2 billion this budget cycle.

Families are given debit cards with a 28-day allowance distributed over four weeks. For a family of four with two children under 5 years old, the cards are loaded with $350 a week, according to city officials.

"[The city is] enabling newly arriving families the ability to make choices for themselves and their children by using these cards. They can buy from local shops, support small businesses, and manage their own resources," Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said in a statement.

Mayor Eric Adams has defended the program, saying, "We're not giving people American Express cards."

"We found that the food delivery service that we set up during the emergency — we could find a better way to do it in our belief that we want to cut 20% of the migrant costs. So we have a pilot project with 500 people that we are giving them food cards, so instead of a debit card, instead of having to deliver food, and have people eat food — we were seeing wasting food — they're now able to get their own food, that is going to be spent $12 a day," he said.

The program gives migrants 40% more in benefits than low-income and elderly New Yorkers get in SNAP benefits.

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Over 60,000 migrants are in the city's care as a surge of migrants has arrived in New York City over the past two years.

The city recently passed its budget, which indicated it plans to spend $4.3 billion between fiscal 2022-2023 and 2025-2026 for "emergency spending related to people seeking asylum in the United States."