New York City Mayor Axes Unpopular Migrant Debit Card Program as Bribery Charges and a New Trump Administration Loom

New York City has ended a program that provided prepaid debit cards to migrant families arriving at the city less than a year since it began.Mayor Adams announced the sudden stoppage of the Immediate Response cards pilot program in a statement on Thursday, according to Fox 5 New York.“Through the immediate response cards pilot program, we were able to reduce food waste, redirect millions of dollars to our local economy, and provide more culturally relevant food to more than 2,600 migrant families in our care,” Mr. Adams said. “As we move towards more competitive contracting for asylum seeker programs, we have chosen not to renew the emergency contract for this pilot program once the one-year term concludes.”The program, which gave families of four with two children under the age of 5 up to $350 each week, was started in March this year and was given out to migrant families who began arriving and settling at The Big Apple to purchase essential items like groceries. It was offered to families already under a separate program in which the families were staying at a hotel provided to them by the city.New York City Council members came out against the program last winter when a no-bid contract was awarded to New Jersey-based Mobility Capital Finance, which earned $53 million to provide the debit cards.“Something’s wrong with this deal, and taxpayers are getting fleeced,” Councilman Bob Holden from Queens said in February. “These no-bid emergency contracts and profit-driven bids are out of control, and we need to reevaluate how we do business as a city,” he added.The news of the program’s closure by the end of a one-year term this spring comes at a precarious time for the scandal-plagued mayor, who is currently facing a federal indictment for allegedly accepting illegal foreign campaign donations from Turkish officials and accepting more than $100,000 in lavish travel gifts.According to the indictment, Mr. Adams took at least six trips around the world on the Turkish government’s dime. In June 2021, a Turkish official told a staffer for the Mayor that their government was able to make all the arrangements “with one phone call,” including “[The] flight, yacht tour, hotels, rental cars.” It is alleged that he pushed for the priorities of the Turkish government back at New York City in exchange for the red carpet treatment. He even tried to green-light a new skyscraper to house Turkey’s diplomatic offices. Mr. Adams is already attempting to delicately balance his favor with Trump for a potential clemency bid with potential backlash from his peers in the democratic party. On Wednesday, as election results showed that Trump had won, the mayor made clear that he plans to work with the upcoming administration while protecting the interests of New Yorkers, according to Gothamist.“We will work with the new administration and Congress to develop a realistic and compassionate national strategy for our immigration system,” Mr. Adams said.The incoming President-elect has publicly expressed sympathy for Mr. Adams’s legal woes.“I just want to be nice because I know what it’s like to be persecuted by the DOJ for speaking out against open borders,” President Trump said during the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at Manhattan last month. “We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted, and so were you.”Both men have long run in the same New York circles over the years, and even though Mr. Adams switched party affiliation in 2002, he has kept his relationships with Republicans strong.“We all agree that it’s in the mayor’s best interest to buddy up to Donald Trump if, in fact, this thing gets worse,” Conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg, who has long had a relationship with Mr. Adams and spoke at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden said to Politico.“And people do think that it’s gonna get worse for the mayor.”

New York City Mayor Axes Unpopular Migrant Debit Card Program as Bribery Charges and a New Trump Administration Loom

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