Albany handing tax dollars to migrants
The Hochul administration is quietly using taxpayer dollars to gift cash payments to thousands of migrants who don’t qualify for typical welfare assistance, The Post has learned.
The cash windfall was made possible by the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance modifying the eligibility rules for its Safety Net Assistance in May to include noncitizens with pending applications for legal asylum status.
The announcement was made through an under-the-radar message the agency sent out to social-services agencies across the state.
The OTDA declined to reveal how many migrants have received SNA checks.
With more than 173,000 migrants coming to the Big Apple since spring 2022, if only 10% of those migrants are eligible for SNA payments, the number of recipients could exceed 17,000 in the five boroughs alone. Currently, there are 66,000 migrants in the city’s care.
ODTA spokesman Anthony Farmer insisted SNA payments to migrants are only “small portion” of $4.3 billion Hochul has already set aside to handle the migrant crisis “in the absence of new federal aid.”
“At the request of New York City, OTDA made a technical update to allow a small percentage of migrants to receive certain additional support in compliance with state and federal law,” Farmer said.
SNA is a state program similar to welfare, and it has historically provided payments to needy New Yorkers who don’t qualify for conventional public assistance, including single adults, childless couples and families of persons abusing alcohol and drugs.
Recipients typically get monthly checks totaling hundreds of dollars and must only use the money to help pay rent and utility costs or purchase clothing or other necessities.
The rule change is the latest in a long list of moves by the city and state to roll out the welcome mat for migrants, critics said — also pointing to Mayor Adams’ new $53 million pilot program to supply migrant families with prepaid credit cards to purchase food and baby supplies.
Luring more to come
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said it’s “horrible that Gov. Hochul found another way to attract migrants” to the state, while “putting the squeeze” on longtime lower- and middle-class New Yorkers who can’t afford to have their tax dollars go toward helping noncitizens.
“You have people from all over the world coming to New York to take advantage of all these left-wing programs the governor, the mayor are implementing, while at the same time they’re clobbering taxpayers over the head,” the Staten Island Republican added.
Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) agreed, saying, “The endless handouts to the entire world are a slap in the face to every citizen who has contributed to and sacrificed for this country.
“It’s time to end this madness,” he added.
Adams has estimated it will cost the city $10.6 billion to deal with the migrant surge through June 2026, and last week asked Gov. Hochul to cough up another $1.6 billion in aid because the Big Apple holds a vast majority of the state’s migrant population.
Last year, the city provided 720,765 residents with financial assistance — as welfare rolls reached highs not seen since 2000, The Post reported last week. To handle that surge, Adams budgeted a staggering $2.46 billion in federal, state and city funds this year.
The city’s Department of Social Services did not return messages.