On Thursday morning, one day after the election and after speaking on the phone with President-elect Donald Trump, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that he is not renewing a controversial — and expensive — food voucher program that provided debit cards for migrant asylum seekers.
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“As we move towards more competitive contracting for asylum seeker programs, we have chosen not to renew the emergency contract for this pilot program once the one-year term concludes,” Mayor Eric Adams’s Office said in a statement.
The program has reportedly cost the state of New York $3.6 million since March. It provided money cards to 2,600 families with around $350 per week for a family of four to buy food and baby supplies. The program was pitched as a way to save taxpayers money because previous methods produced waste when prepared food was not eaten or was deemed “culturally insensitive.”
New York’s immigrant crisis has seen over 200,000 immigrants flood New York City since 2022, with more immigrants than New Yorkers in the DHS system—65,000 in the city’s care—and their cries for help to the federal government being largely unheard.
While Mayor Adams is stuck to the main Democrat fighting points—abortion, protection of immigrants, and the rights of the LGBTQ community—he congratulated Trump on his win and said that he spoke with the president-elect on Wednesday, and they discussed how they might work together to better New York.
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“I communicated with the president yesterday to state that there are many issues here in the city that we want to work together with the administration to address,” Adams said. “The city must move forward and that is what our call is to do.”
He refused to answer questions about Trump’s deportation pledge and if he will cooperate with authorities despite New York being a sanctuary city, causing a stir among left-wing circles.
Mayor Adams has learned the hard way that the fantasies of the Left are much harder to live out in reality. It’s easy to talk about immigration when it doesn’t directly affect your city or state on a large scale. New York has gotten a small taste of what border states live with every day. Adam’s actions may show that he is ready for decisive change — and perhaps some relief.
The story unfolding between Mayor Adams and Donald Trump in recent months has been an unpredictable alliance after Trump expressed empathy for Adam’s legal challenges, which the president-elect believes were in retaliation for the mayor criticizing Biden’s immigration policies.
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Then, in late October, during the height of the election, Mayor Adams condemned the inflammatory, hyperbolic speech of Donald Trump.
“I have had those terms hurled at me by some political leaders in the city, using terms like Hitler and fascist,” said Mr. Adams, a former police officer. “My answer is no. I know what Hitler has done and I know what a fascist regime looks like.
During Trump’s first term, he commuted the sentences of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who were both Democrats. It has been speculated that he could pardon Adams too.
While Trump has not specifically commented on whether or not he would pardon the mayor, he has been explicit on his plans to clean up the national immigration crisis.