NYC's migrant debit card boondoggle - no-bid bank gets $50 million, border crossers up to $10,000 each By Nicole Gelinas | 19 Feb 2024 | ...One misperception is that the [Mayor Eric Adams migrant debit card] program allows the city to give out just $50 million to migrants. No wonder the mayor has been reticent. This debit-card program — if you read the actual contract — has the potential to become an open-ended, multi-billion-dollar Bermuda Triangle of disappearing, untraceable cash, used for any purpose. It will give migrants up to $10,000 each in taxpayer money with no ID check, no restrictions and no fraud control... New York City is home to hundreds of top-tier financial-services and public-benefits providers, a dream of a competitive bidding pool, to ensure that the city gets a good price, as well as strong protections against fraud and abuse. But HPD considered only one: Newark-based Mobility Capital Finance, which also has an office in Harlem... Most importantly: the $53 million headline figure is not the money that migrants will receive during the pilot. This is the number that the vendor, MoCaFi, potentially will receive as its fee for services.