New York City is moving forward with a controversial plan to give debit cards for food and baby supplies to immigrant families who are in the United States illegally.

Under the new program, a family of four would receive up to $350 per week on a debit card. The program will last six weeks. Ten families received debit cards on Monday as the program looks to expand to about 115 families over the next week. 

“We need to dispel the rumor that we gave American Express cards to everyone,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference this month. “That is just not true.”

He has defended the program, arguing it will bring down costs to feed the immigrants and put money back into local businesses. 

The program faced criticism for the possibility of abuse or fraud and for questions about whether illegal immigrants were being given preferential treatment over other New Yorkers in need of assistance. 

“A lot of New Yorkers are going to take this as something that’s fundamentally unfair,” Joseph Borelli, the City Council’s Republican minority leader, said. “There are plenty of New Yorkers struggling to pay their bills.”

“I do struggle with why people are being so negative when it comes to providing something so basic for families with children,” Anne Williams-Isom, New York City’s deputy mayor for health and human services, said. “It’s not putting groups against each other.”

Debit cards will be distributed at the Roosevelt Hotel in the borough of Manhattan to immigrant families who are staying in the city’s hotels under Adams’s 28-day stay voucher program. Officials said the cards’ use will be monitored before expanding the program. 

“We’ll be looking at where they’re actually being used, what the card is being used for, and feedback from migrants themselves to see whether this is something that is worthwhile,” Williams-Isom said.

The city also has the authority to remove money from the cards or turn off a debit card.

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However, there are questions about the city’s contract for the debit card program with Mobility Capital Finance, a company that provides services to low-income families. The contract was awarded on an emergency basis, meaning there were no competitive bids from other companies. 

Adams’s administration has previously been criticized for entering a “no-bid” contract with DocGo, a medical services company working on the illegal immigration crisis in the city.