{"id":614,"date":"2024-06-23T09:12:25","date_gmt":"2024-06-23T09:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/?p=614"},"modified":"2024-06-23T09:16:13","modified_gmt":"2024-06-23T09:16:13","slug":"nyc-boasts-taxpayer-funded-card-program-for-illegal-immigrants-is-helping-lead-nation-through-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/?p=614","title":{"rendered":"NYC boasts taxpayer-funded card program for illegal immigrants is helping lead nation through ‘crisis’"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City<\/a>\u00a0officials are boasting that a taxpayer-funded program that hands out $350 per week to migrant families is helping to set an example for the rest of the nation on how to manage the “national humanitarian crisis” created by mass illegal immigration.<\/p>\n

Although the program has\u00a0drawn opposition from critics<\/a>\u00a0who question giving illegal immigrants no-strings handouts from the city’s strapped coffers, officials seem to think the program is a major success.<\/p>\n

“New York City is leading the nation in managing this national humanitarian crisis, having cared for more than 203,900 migrants since the spring of 2022 and helping more than 65 percent move out of our care and take the next steps in their journeys,” a city hall spokesperson told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

New York City officials began giving out prepaid debit cards to\u00a0migrant families<\/a>\u00a0residing in the Big Apple earlier this year. The prepaid cards \u2013 the first of which were\u00a0distributed in March<\/a>\u00a0as part of the city’s Immediate Response Cards (IRC) program \u2013 are meant to be used only to purchase essential items like food.<\/p>\n

MIGRANT ARRESTED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT RAPE OF 13-YEAR-OLD IN NEW YORK PARK<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"???-???-?????\"<\/picture><\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

The prepaid cards \u2013 the first of which were distributed in March as part of the city’s Immediate Response Cards program \u2013 are meant to be used only to purchase essential items like food.\u00a0(Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Through the program, the city hall spokesperson noted that New York City has “helped 900\u00a0migrant families \u2013 including over 1,300\u00a0children \u2013 purchase their own food and baby supplies at stores that sell groceries and convenience items.”<\/p>\n

“This has helped circulate approximately $600,000\u00a0back into the New York City economy,” the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n

But it is unclear exactly how much the city has spent on the program to date. The effort is part of what was reported earlier this year to be a\u00a0$53 million pilot program<\/u><\/a>\u00a0to hand out prepaid credit cards to migrant families housed in hotels despite public outcry.<\/p>\n

Access to the program, according to the mayor’s office, is limited to those in a separate program that provides four-week hotel stays to families with children, and families expecting children.<\/p>\n

Allowances for illegal immigrants residing in the city are distributed on a weekly basis until the end of their four-week hotel stays, with families of four with two children under the age of five receiving up to nearly $350 each week.<\/p>\n

The IRC program, the city said, is in a subsection of the locations where the city is\u00a0providing shelter<\/a>\u00a0and care to migrants, representing less than one percent of the total population of migrants currently under the city\u2019s care.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Migrants<\/picture><\/div>\n
\n
\n

Asylum seekers line up in front of the historic Roosevelt Hotel, converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families, in New York City on September 27, 2023.\u00a0(Selcuk Acar\/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

LOCAL OFFICIALS ATTACK NEW YORK CITY PLAN TO HOUSE MIGRANTS IN STATEN ISLAND CHURCH: ‘HURTING THIS COMMUNITY’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

At the start of the program, the cards were reportedly being distributed at the city\u2019s arrival center, the\u00a0Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan<\/u><\/a>, to the migrant families who are staying at hotels that are being used as emergency shelters.<\/p>\n

Adams<\/u><\/a>, a Democrat, vehemently defended the program and the “misinformation” surrounding it earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Appearing before a state legislative budget hearing in Albany in February, Adams said, “We\u2019re not giving people American Express cards.”<\/p>\n

“We found that the food delivery service that we set up during the emergency \u2013 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 \u2014 we were seeing wasting food \u2014 they\u2019re now able to get their own food, that is going to be spent $12 a day,” he said at the time.<\/p>\n

New York City’s government<\/a>\u00a0previously projected that it will spend at least $10.6 billion on migrants by the summer of 2025. New York state has already vowed to contribute about $2 billion in the current budget cycle to the migrant crisis, but Adams told lawmakers that the state’s pledge would only cover one-third of the city\u2019s migrant costs.<\/p>\n

\n
\"New<\/picture><\/div>\n
\n
\n

Single migrant men, mostly from West Africa, congregate in Tompkins Square Park as volunteers give away food and clothing on January 27, 2024, in the East Village neighborhood of New York City.\u00a0(Andrew Lichtenstein\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Roughly 180,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since 2022, overwhelming city resources as officials have struggled to find housing for them. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has\u00a0bused asylum-seekers to New York<\/u><\/a>\u00a0and other cities in an effort to assist them in traveling to sanctuary jurisdictions and also highlight the crisis that border communities face on a daily basis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York City\u00a0officials are boasting that a taxpayer-funded program that hands out $350 per week to migrant families is helping to set an example for the rest of the nation… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,267,257],"tags":[276,274,275,269],"views":483,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":621,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions\/621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}