NYC illegal immigrant debit card scheme: Bank with no-bid contract hands out thousands of tax dollars

NEW YORK CITY, NY - Reporting from New York revealed in early February that a program put forward by the office of New York Mayor Eric Adams is handing out up to $10,000 of taxpayer funds to each illegal immigrant with no measures to prevent fraud, check ID or restrict its use. 

As reported by The New York Post, the Mayor's office moved forward with this initiative with Mobility Capital Finance, its no-bid "emergency" banking contractor, because the city was allegedly unable to provide sufficient food to meet the needs of the illegal immigrants it is sheltering through it's "emergency" food contractor DocGo.

The food contractor was reportedly throwing away up to 5,000 meals per day, or about $7.2 million worth of food.

Writing for the Post, Nicole Gelinas explained, "Some food is inedible — expired or rotten — and other food doesn’t meet migrants’ dietary needs."



The New York Housing Preservation & Development Department only considered that one option for the banking contract even citing in the contract that it was "referred to HPD by City Hall." As reported by the Post, MoCaFi was founded by Wole Coaxum, formerly of JPMorgan Chase to "serve the 'underbanked' and 'narrow the racial wealth gap.'"

In the Liberty Report, former Congressman Dr. Ron Paul pointed out that the debit cards issued under this plan are also "refillable."



The program reportedly lived in the grey area of what Gelinas refers to as "public misperception," alleging that Mayor Adams is satisfied with that status after he told reporters in February, "We’re doing on a pilot project with 500 people."

However, this statement was not borne out by the actual contract with MoCaFi, which states for "performance of the services, the city shall pay to the contractor a total amount not to exceed $53 [million]." and noting that this does not include the money actually given to illegal immigrants but is merely for the banks "services."

Per the Post, the reloadable cards are issued without a name on them and, at the city's direction, are loaded with up to $10,000 each, and can even be issued to minors if "the minor cardholder’s parent or guardian has consented to the minor’s acceptance and use of the card.”

These cards are functionally Mastercards as well, not debit cards or EBT benefits cards, and are unrestricted and could ostensibly be used to buy anything from any business that accepts Mastercards.

According to CBS2 News, the New York City Council is now calling for an investigation into the arrangement with MoCaFi.



Councilmember Gale Brewer said, "I think you should bid it out to see who would do the best job at the best cost for taxpayers." She added, "I don't know exactly how it's going to work. I do see from the release it will be for diapers and baby products and food, but you have to be careful that that's what it's actually going to be for."

 
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Comments

Richard

Should not be any program for the illegal aliens. They are not migrants.

Steve

Those in New York have voted these fools into office. They are reaping what they have sowed.

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