New York Expands Divisive Food Debit Card Program for Migrants

Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll look at the expansion of a city pilot program to give food debit cards to migrants. The program will cost the city $2.6 million, which officials said was cheaper than providing boxed meals.

Credit…Lucia Vazquez for The New York Times

Over 7,300 migrants in New York City are expected to receive debit cards to pay for food and baby items over the next six months, city officials said, as part of an expansion of a pilot program that has been met with fierce pushback.

The debit card program began earlier this year and started with around 900 families, or around 3,000 migrants. During the program’s first 13 weeks, the cards were used to feed more than 1,300 children and 42 pregnant women, our colleagues Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Luis Ferré-Sadurní reported.

“When we empower people, we help them achieve self-sufficiency and access the American dream,” said Anne Williams-Isom, the city’s deputy mayor for health and human services.

Now, the program is expanding from three hotels where migrants are housed to 17. City officials estimate that the debit cards could serve about 2 percent of the total migrant population; more than 60,000 migrants are in the city’s care. The city is legally mandated to provide food to migrants under a right-to-shelter requirement.