New York City To Give Prepaid $10K Mastercard Debit Cards To Illegal Immigrants, With Vendor Making $53 Million

The New York Post broke the story earlier this month, which is designed to replace the city’s previous scheme that provided food and meal kits to immigrants being housed in shelters and hotels.

The influx of migrants has greatly overwhelmed the city. Last month it was reported that roughly 2,000 students in Brooklyn were sent home to do e-learning instead, because Governor Eric Adams decided to temporarily house a flock of immigrants in one of these schools. “The writing was on the wall the minute the city started being inundated with migrants,” said a mother at the time. “It’s disgusting. It should not be put on us taxpayers.”

Nicole Gelinas for The NYP wrote that “this debit card program — if you read the actual contract — has the potential to become an open-ended, multibillion-dollar Bermuda Triangle of disappearing, untraceable cash, used for any purpose. It will give migrants up to $10,000 each in taxpayer money with no ID check, no restrictions and no fraud control.”

Part of the contract states:

Cardholders will not be subject to ID verification, [and] the city shall be responsible for the accurate delivery [of cards to] consumers. After delivery of [cards] to the city, the city shall be responsible for the security of the [cards] until delivered … to the cardholders.

Cardholders can pay for any goods/services at any business merchant that accepts Mastercard.

Mayor Adams explained the program on February 5th during a routine media release.

Newark-based Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi) is the contracted vendor managing the debit card program, which will fill the cards with roughly $12.52 per person, per day, providing to 500 immigrant families.

However, as The NYP points out, this pilot program, taken at face value, nowhere near reaches the initially reported $53 million payout, but rather is around $6 million. Actually, that’s the amount of money MoCaFi is primed to earn per the contract they signed with the city.

As the contract document clearly and explicitly states, over the year’s term, “in exchange for [MoCaFi’s] … performance of the services, the city shall pay to the contractor a total amount not to exceed $53 [million] … in accordance with the scope of services and fees.”

That “scope of services” does not include the money that the migrants actually receive on their debit cards. The city funds the cards — that is, puts money on them — separately. In other words: For a maximum of $53 million, MoCaFi issues blank Mastercards, in bulk…