New York City Public Schools Press Office, CC BY 2.0 DEED, via Flickr, Cropped by Resist the Mainstream

New York City officials have begun the much-maligned process of giving out prepaid debit cards to migrant families living in the city.

The first batch of cards were handed out Monday to a handful of migrant families in the city, New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office confirmed. The cards are meant to be used by illegal immigrants to purchase food and baby supplies. 

This is part of a reported $53 million pilot program to hand out prepaid cards to migrant families in hotels, which has drawn bipartisan criticism as Americans question why the funds are being spent in this manner.

The mayor's office confirmed that the program will provide migrant families of four with two children under 5 with up to $350 each week until the end of their stay in city hotels. The program will expand to about 115 families, or roughly 460 people, over the next week.

The cards can only be used at bodegas, grocery stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores. Migrants eligible for the program must sign a document confirming that they will only spend the funds on food and baby supplies, or risk losing access to the funds. 

Additionally, the mayor's office confirmed that the pilot program was launched using a phased approach, starting with only a few hotels. City officials have noted that the cards will be loaded with one week's worth of funds at a time and that their use would be monitored.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a city hall spokesperson noted that New York City was “excited” about launching the effort, describing it as a “cost-saving measure [that] will replace the city’s current system of providing non-perishable food boxes to migrant families staying in hotels, much of which is often discarded.”

“A large part of our success is due to our constant work to find new ways to better serve the hundreds of individuals and families arriving every single day, as well as the longtime New Yorkers experiencing homelessness who are already in our care,” the spokesperson said. “That is why we are excited to launch an innovative, cost-saving pilot program with Mobility Capital Finance to distribute pre-paid cards to migrant families to purchase only food and baby supplies.”

“Not only will this provide families with the ability to purchase fresh food for their culturally-relevant diets and the baby supplies of their choosing, but the pilot program is expected to save New York City taxpayers more than $600,000 per month and $7 million per year,” the spokesperson added. “The prepaid cards can be used exclusively at select stores to ensure the money is spent on food and baby supplies.”

Under the pilot program, which is expected to last for six weeks, migrants will receive more money than low income and elderly American citizens who are receiving SNAP benefits. Single households under the SNAP program are eligible for up to $291 a month in benefits aimed at providing “low-income working people, senior citizens, the disabled and others” money to buy food products.

Adams, a Democrat, has vehemently defended the program and the “misinformation” surrounding it.

“We found that the food delivery service that we set up during the emergency – we could find a better way to do it in our belief that we want to cut 20% of the migrant costs. So we have a pilot project with 500 people that we are giving them food cards, so instead of a debit card, instead of having to deliver food, and have people eat food — we were seeing wasting food — they’re now able to get their own food, that is going to be spent $12 a day,” he said at the time.

“So we are going to save money on delivery, we’re going to save money on people wasting food, and this is a pilot project we’re going to use that is going to save us $6.7 million a year,” he added.  “And if the pilot turns out to be successful, then we’re going to expand it not only with the migrants and asylum seekers, we’d look to do that expansion throughout the entire system — trying to find smarter, more cost — effective ways to deal with this crisis that was dropped in our lap.”

Critics, however, have said that New York City's sanctuary policies and handouts to migrants will only encourage more immigration.

“If I were promoting an event and wanted to attract the biggest possible crowd without worrying about losing money, I'd make admission free and give everyone complimentary pizza and beer,” Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, a Tennessee Republican, posted on X. “That's kinda immigration policy right now.”