Opinion
Earlier this month, New York City launched a $53 million program to provide prepaid debit cards to illegal immigrants.
According to a New York Post analysis of the contract, the starting number is just a fee for the pilot program, while the contract calls for issuing debit cards worth up to $10,000 per illegal alien, at a cost of $2.5 billion per year.
“One misconception is that the program allows the city to distribute only $50 million to migrants,” writes Post columnist Nicole Gelinas.
Gelinas, a financial analyst and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy, describes the debit card program as “a multibillion-dollar, open-ended Bermuda Triangle of vanishing, untraceable cash used for any purpose.”
“It will give migrants up to $10,000 each in taxpayer money with no identity checks, no restrictions and no fraud checks,” he writes.
RELATED: Illegal aliens receive $53 million in prepaid debit cards from New York
Illegal Immigrant Debit Card Program: $10,000 each
While it is not surprising that a government program would be more expensive than initially estimated, the details of the contract appear to have been presented rather deceptively by the office of New York Mayor Eric Adams.
When initial reports indicated that the debit card program for illegal immigrants would cost $53 million, the public was outraged, but Adams’s people presented it as a money saver.
“Not only will this give families the ability to purchase fresh food for their culturally relevant diet and baby items of their choice, but the pilot program is expected to save New York City more than $600,000 per month, or more of 7.2 million dollars per year”. “, Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak She said.
The Daily Mail explains that “the $53 million does not represent the total cost,” but rather just a fee paid to the bank for its services.
“City Hall has actually given itself the flexibility to shell out at least $2.5 billion on prepaid debit cards in a year,” he continues.
The absurdity of the program lies in the details.
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New York makes them promise not to abuse the program
New York City is paying a $53 million fee to implement a program with an “open-ended” contract to provide at least $2.5 billion in prepaid debit cards to illegal immigrants in a single year.
All to save “$7.2 million a year,” according to the mayor’s office.
And this is if the program runs smoothly and there is no fraud. Fortunately, New York City is very serious about eliminating waste and fraud from the program, relying on people who entered the country illegally to swear that they will use the debit cards appropriately.
To ensure the funds are used properly, recipients must sign an affidavit vowing to use the money only for food and baby items, or risk being removed from the program.
In other words, they promise not to take advantage of unenforced rules and laws, even though their entire presence here is an attempt to take advantage of unenforced rules and laws.
Well, at least the city has hired an experienced bank to manage the program and ensure that problems are kept to a minimum.
Oh, wait.
“What kind of experience did MoCaFi (Mobility Capital Finance) bring to this complex undertaking?” Gelinas reports it. “Nobody.”
MoCaFi was awarded a no-bid contract. The financial institution’s founder previously said that the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 inspired him to serve the “underbanked” and “close the racial wealth gap.”
The details of the debit card program for illegal immigrants are much worse than initially reported, and certainly won’t deter from coming those who Adams once claimed would “destroy” the city.
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