Following President-elect Donald Trump’s sweeping victory, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to discontinue the city’s program providing food vouchers to undocumented immigrants.
The pilot program, initiated under the Biden-Harris administration to aid asylum seekers, has been in place for one year and allowed immigrants staying in city shelters to receive debit cards to purchase food.
The Immediate Response Cards program, as it was formally known, aimed to support migrant families arriving in New York City who lacked the resources to afford food.
JUST IN: 🇺🇸NYC Mayor Eric Adams announces the city will no longer issue vouchers to illegal immigrantspic.twitter.com/c0D1UqCOni
— Resist Times (@resistupdates) November 8, 2024
Under the program, participating families received weekly debit cards valued at $350 to help cover food expenses.
ABC 7, New York’s affiliate, reported that the program was designed with an emphasis on providing “culturally relevant food” to meet the specific needs of migrant families, addressing complaints that food served in shelters was not aligned with their dietary and cultural preferences.
The program served approximately 2,600 migrant families over the past year and was part of a broader city effort to support the growing number of immigrants