Republicans Press NYC Mayor Eric Adams on $53 Million Prepaid Debit Cards for Illegal Immigrants

A police officer hands out pizza to dozens of illegal immigrants who recently arrived in New York City as they camp outside of the Roosevelt Hotel, on Aug. 1, 2023. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

House Republicans are demanding answers from New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams regarding his $53 million program that will provide illegal immigrants with taxpayer-funded, prepaid debit cards.

In an April 10 letter, addressed to Mr. Adams, Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) and seven of his fellow Republican members of Congress expressed concern about his $53 million “Immediate Response Card” (IRC) program, describing the initiative as “a free handout to foreign nationals who illegally circumvented our immigration processes.”

Mr. Gooden was joined by South Carolina Reps. Ralph Norman, and Jeff Duncan, Rep. Barry Moore from Alabama, Rep. Andy Biggs from Arizona, California’s Rep. Darrel Issa, Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert.

“Not only does this plan fail to address the underlying source of New York’s surging immigrant population,” they charge in the letter, “but it further incentivizes the arrival of illegal aliens who will feel justified in receiving these taxpayer-funded benefits.”

While the mayor’s office has claimed the program will reduce waste and save New York City’s taxpayers around $7.2 million per year, the Republican lawmakers insist that the purported savings are “worthless” when compared to money spent by the city on the other incentives, including the $350 per week to house each illegal immigrant in one of the many contracted hotels.

While the rules say the prepaid debit cards are only supposed to be used at bodegas, supermarkets, grocery, and convenience stores, the locations of these businesses are not specified.

The representatives also predict that “distributing untraceable cash on transferable debit cards” will only attract more illegal immigrants. The mayor has already said the illegal immigration crisis would “destroy” the city.

They note that New York City’s elderly, low-income, and disabled American citizens only qualify to receive $291 per month through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The $53 million is also significantly more than the $30 million in total appropriations budgeted for American veterans in FY 2025 through its Department of Veterans Affairs. These points, the Republican lawmakers say, make the taxpayer-funded program to serve illegal immigrants even more “egregious.”

The Epoch Times reached out to Mr. Adams seeking a response to the letter.

The Program

To launch the program, the city announced on Jan. 25 that Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) awarded a $53 million contract to Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi) to distribute the IRCs.

According to the description, MoCaFi staff would hand-deliver the IRCs directly into the hands of the illegal immigrants being housed at the Roosevelt Hotel, described as “the first touchpoint” for illegal immigrants arriving in New York City.

The first batch of debit cards was distributed to the families of illegal immigrants on March 25, as reported by The Epoch Times.

While details of the program are few, The New York Post reported what it had learned from City Hall in early February.

The program began with the 500 illegal immigrant families currently being housed at the Roosevelt Hotel to replace the current food service offered there, according to City Hall.

Under the new IRC program, a family of four could receive almost $1,000 each month for food, or around $35 per day, and the cards would be reloaded every 28 days.

During a Feb 20 interview with FOX 5 NY, Mr. Adams clarified that “each migrant will get about $13 a day, so it’s not automatically $1,000 as it has been reported.”

The illegal immigrants are told they can only use the cards at bodegas, supermarkets, grocery, and convenience stores and must sign an affidavit swearing they will only use the money for food and baby supplies. Violating this agreement will have them kicked out of the program.

Mr. Adams’ spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said, “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,” The New York Post reported.

Mr. Adams defended the program.

“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,” he explained, according to FOX News.

“If the pilot turns out to be successful, then we’re going to expand it not only with the migrants and asylum seekers, we’d look to do that expansion throughout the entire system, trying to find smarter, more cost-effective ways to deal with this crisis that was dropped in our lap,” he added.

In reading the actual contract, The New York Post described the program as having “the potential to become an open-ended, multibillion-dollar Bermuda Triangle of disappearing, untraceable cash, used for any purpose.”

The program will provide each illegal immigrant with up to $10,000 per year in taxpayer dollars. An illegal immigrant family of four, with children under the age of 17, could receive up to $15,000 a year.

The Questions

With so little information being made available about how the city plans to track spending or enforce program guidelines, Mr. Gooden and his Republican colleagues are demanding answers.

First, they want to know if MoCaFi, New York City, and its contracted hotels are working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to vet the illegal immigrants staying in the hotels who will be enrolling in the IRC program. They go further by asking the mayor to specify what type(s) of identification the illegal immigrants will be required to present.

They ask if an illegal immigrant who has not been vetted by ICE can qualify to be on the program.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams attends a news conference in New York on Oct. 11, 2022. Mary Altaffer/AP Photo

They also want the mayor to describe how an illegal immigrant’s eligibility to participate in the program will be decided. They have asked him to specify “the parameters for family unit” as well as how many adult illegal immigrants in each family can qualify.

The Republicans have also demanded to know how MoCaFi and New York City will account for and track how money is spent across designated locations.

They also want the mayor to provide the specific bodegas, grocery stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores that are authorized to accept the cards as well as the guidelines and policies that have been established to ensure that the weekly allotment of money is only spent on food and baby supplies.

The mayor has also been requested to outline “any contingency plans or guidelines to deal with potential fraud and/or other abuse of the program.”

Another question the Republicans want answered is whether any unused funds on the cards will be transferable on a weekly basis.

In addition, they want to know how long illegal immigrants will be allowed to stay in the program and if they can re-enroll in the program once their term expires.

Specifically, they want to know if any federal funds are being used to finance the IRC program, including $107 million recently approved for release for New York City from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as reported by The Washington Examiner last month.

“Illegal immigrants are flooding into NYC because of its sanctuary city status and transportation and housing programs facilitating their arrival,” the eight Republicans note in their letter to Mr. Adams, noting that his refusal to cooperate with ICE has “created a safe haven for migrants who believe they can illegally cross our borders, obtain a free bus ticket to Manhattan, and receive free food and housing without risk of being deported.”

The “Immediate Response Card” program, which reportedly began on Monday, March 25, 2024, “will do nothing to curb the migrant crisis,” they insist. “We hope you will contemplate the long-term and burdensome cost to American citizens and taxpayers in New York City, and we strongly encourage you to acknowledge these consequences when considering future projects for your city. We look forward to your timely and adequate response.”