While urging so-called asylum seekers to stay away, New York City is at the same time expanding a program that is slated to eventually offer prepaid debit cards to each of the approximately 66,000 illegals in its care (out of the estimated 204,000 recently arrived). The cards are supposed to be used only for food items, diapers, etc., in grocery and convenience stores, though often in practice such cards are traded for unauthorized purchases such as tobacco, alcohol, or street drugs.
The value of each card will depend upon the size of the migrant’s family. For example, an individual can receive up to $350 per week, adding up to approximately $18,200 annually. A family of three could receive $932 per month, and a family of four could pull down $1,195 monthly. A family of eight would receive the monthly maximum, $2,203.
(These amounts well exceeds the average monthly $291 given to low-income, elderly, and disabled U.S. citizens through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP].)
The city claims that the debit card program is actually a cost-saving measure, saving to the tune of $7.2 million over the pre-made meals it has been providing, small potatoes when you consider that NYC has reportedly already spent $10 billion over the past three-plus years of the Biden term.
As noted, at the same time this is going on, New York City is spending resources distributing “Stay Away” flyers to newly arrived border crossers down at the border. If that is the city’s goal, providing free money would hardly seem the way to discourage newcomers, but these are, after all, the Crazy Years.
For more, see the National Pulse website.