This week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams warned of “extremely painful” cuts to city services to offset the money going to shelter and feed migrants. But even worse is how the money is being wasted. Migrants complain the prepared meals delivered to them three times a day — including chicken alfredo, beef enchiladas and even special halal meals for Muslims — aren’t to their liking or aren’t hot enough. They’re throwing the food away.
Thousands of dollars’ worth of meals are landing in dumpsters. It’s an insult to taxpayers and every family that scrimps to afford groceries.
Worse, taxpayers are paying rip-off prices for these meals, eaten or not.
The only winners are the ever-expanding migrant-industrial complex — the advocates posing as do-gooders while they profiteer off a crisis.
DocGo, a company with a no-bid contract to shelter and care for migrants, is allowed to bill the city up to $11 per meal, or $33 a day per migrant. That adds up to $3,960 a month for a migrant family of four.
That’s four times what a needy American family of four gets under Uncle Sam’s SNAP food assistance program.
Is it because migrants’ meals are prepared? No. Prepared meals for airline passengers — supplied by companies such as Flying Food Group and Gate Gourmet — cost about $4 for economy class, less than half the cost of migrants’ meals. Charging $11 is price gouging.
Under a 1981 court-enforced agreement between New York City and advocates for homeless people, the city must provide every homeless person with shelter and “access to three nutritional meals a day.” Applying this to people who arrive on the city’s doorstep from other countries is absurd and should be challenged. Until then, complying with the agreement does not require providing plates of meat and potatoes served up hot.
Under the 1981 agreement, the city could give migrants vouchers or debit cards to pay bodegas, fast-food outlets and street vendors. Migrants staying at the Roosevelt Hotel can be seen bringing in bags of food after they’ve trashed the city-provided meals. The current meal service is a scam draining the city’s resources while enriching the burgeoning migrant care industry.
Long before the migrant crisis, shelter operators were already taking New York taxpayers for a ride. In 2021, the New York Post detailed how the CEO of CORE Services Group, a nonprofit with multimillion-dollar contracts with the city, made over $1 million a year for himself under the veneer of running a charity. He set up for-profit subsidiaries to provide food, security services and building maintenance, which paid him and his family members hefty salaries.
The migrant crisis gives profiteers an opportunity to go in for the kill. At a New York City Council hearing last March, an Adams administration official was asked why meals for migrants cost so much more than meals provided to homeless New Yorkers. The slick answer was that “emergencies are going to cost more.”
It costs $394 per day to shelter and feed a migrant, compared with $254 for homeless New Yorkers under the care of the Department of Homeless Services. More than 50% more than already inflated costs.
Migrants complain about rotten food. The worst rot is inside the Adams administration’s handling of this emergency.
Who is going to fix this? Not the city’s comptroller, Brad Lander. He suggests more of the money spent on contracts should go to “minority and women-owned businesses.” Spreading out the spoils.
Look to federal law enforcement. In October, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York charged the CEO of a nonprofit — Childrens Community Services — and his business associate of operating a $50 million network of “fly-by-night companies” that bought meals, furniture and other goods from vendors, marked them up and made a killing at the taxpayers’ expense. That was under the previous mayor’s watch.
Now the stakes are higher, as thousands of migrants arrive weekly. Instead of making “extremely painful cuts” to the services all New Yorkers rely on, Adams should take a hatchet to the profiteering migrant-industrial complex. If Adams won’t, the feds should move in.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM
What other country on this planet skins its own to feed the enemy
Time to send these ungrateful people back to where they came from.
The democrat elites are growing while my wallet is shrinking. If there is a “D” is behind the name DON’T vote for them.
The free stuff we bestow upon illegal aliens turns into a magnet drawing more illegals to our country. Illegals get hotels while our homeless veterans get the street. Democrat priorities are difficult to understand. Maybe less beneficence on our part might translate to fewer people coming here illegally.
Every dollar used to give the illegals medicine, food, and housing is stealing from our own citizens!! We have veterans who are homeless and/or need medical help. We have children who need a REAL education on REAL subjects. When will non-communist DIMMs finally have enough to vote these creeps out?
Migrants at the border is a business. Cartels are making money off of them. Businesses in the US are making profits off of them. There is no backlash from businesses. Hotels are being trashed but the owners are quiet for they are making big bucks. ole Joe hasn’t had a plan since he threw the borders wide open. His plan to break Texas is all he is working on. Everybody is happy for everyone is making money except the taxpayers paying for these migrants. Business is business in ole Joe’s government. Opposition has to be broken. For the migrants know how important they are to ole Joe. Impeachment is not enough punishment for what ole Joe is doing to this country.
You may not like Trump. In fact, you may hate him. But he is the ONLY hope out of this mess our country is in. He cannot be bought because he has enough money and does not need the top job. Think back 4-5 years. How was your family doing? What about inflation, gas prices, employment and the southern border? If you think you are better off under old Joe than Trump, you have a screw loose!
In fact, it is unconstitutional for the United States government to take money and give it a charity for anything.
What ever happened to: “Beggars Can’t Be Choosey”?
Maybe what we should be doing is Executing a Few!
Corrupt fraud puppet traitors Joebama couldn’t do this krap without backing by anti-republic commie Demoncrats and RINOS…it’s the traitor’s planned destruction of our country. We are at the abyss, we may not make it to the 2024 elections…we MUST vote en masse for pro-USA, anti-Commie, anti globalists, America First Trump to overcome the traitors. At this point, with a slew of trojan horse traitors running for POTUS, PROVEN PATRIOT Trump is probably the only hope of stopping the horror.
All These ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS MUST BE DEPORTED, NOT CARED FOR and at TAXPAYER EXPENSE!!!!!
No wonder they are flooding into this country like locusts. They are treated like dignitaries and better than US citizens. Locusts is the right tern for them. Idiots is the right term for us.
Forget the feds. They are in this up to their necks as well. Whether it’s an open border and the illegals, real Americans are getting the shaft in a big way. I have no issue helping those who are Americans and homeless… but the liberals apparently feel it’s OK to give illegals better housing, food and assistance than our own. Remember that at the polls.
Deport to wherever they came from. Unbelievable.
This waste is EXACTLY why you must enforce a legal immigration process ONLY.
It’s NOT that hard, we have laws,we have a process FOLLOW THEM!
Any marxist democrat, liberal, employer after cheap labor or bleeding heart buying the BS can pay out of THEIR pocket!!!!
So sick,sad and wrong that America spends $3400 supporting ILLEGALS, while seniors receive $1200 in social security, Our CITIZENS who are veterans, mentally challenged and elder get NOTHING to keep them afloat while, ILLEGALS Coupland throw away free food!
How screwed up is this system??
Why can’t even simple minded politicians figure it out??
JUST SAY HELL NO
Holy good God, make it stop. I love to leave these comments, and read about everyone’s outrage, but who is responsible for making it stop? So many things are just completely off the rails, and everybody is b*tching and moaning about it, but everywhere I turn I find people helpless to stop the wholesale destruction of America. We just let it happen, because we’re good people, so we can’t shoot ’em. What the Hell?
Corruption runs to the core of both the National and state administrations. Adams could not find his ass with a flashlight on a dark night. I am pretty sure some of his friends are sharing the spoils of the migrant situation. And he cries for more federal (taxpayer funded) money, our money.. Look at the Biden’s: Hunter evading taxes, Joe on the take, the whole damn family is corrupt. And some people elected him to the top job of the land? What a bunch dipsticks! We need to clean house from the top down. Throw out or jail the bums. Better yet, send them across the southern border. If they won’t leave, more extreme measures may be needed. Our country is being run into the ground by a bunch of crooks. We cannot take this lying down or there won’t be a country left.
We need to take America back and get rid of all these ILLEGALS!
The feds under Biden won’t do a thing about this.
Are the Bidenazzi’s getting thier cut of this?
we dont have a country
STOP CALLING THEM MIGRANTS!!!! THEY ARE ILLEGAL ALIENS!!!!
It costs $394 per day to shelter and feed a migrant, compared with $254 for homeless New Yorkers under the care of the Department of Homeless Services.
Even at the lower rate of $245/day, that is $89,425 a year for ONE person. Damn near twice what I make a year. So who is screwing who here? So when di I get to sit on my ass and be fed?
This is the largest human trafficking operation led by scuzball Joey since being installed in 2021. Time to get him the hell out of office now, not next year. He should be impeached for dereliction of duty.
Only the party of slavery, aka, the US Democratic Party, could concoct such a traitoruous and destructive scheme.
Easy fix charge all ngos with human trafficking remove all tax free status. Go after any company hiring illegals and fine them using step fines. X for the first offense xx for the second and so forth. Stop all aid to the illegals they are here illegally. Have some state superme court justices remove Biden from the ballot for 2024 election charging him with treason for all the illegals coming across the boarder aka invasion of usa and allowing it to happen as well as human trafficking. Time to use fire to fight fire with the Democrats we need to give them a taste of the medicine they are throwing at the Republicans and independents, peacefully
Beans and rice do not cost $11 per meal.
Stop the Cartels that are pushing the people to come here. Stop our Gov. and close the Border. Use the laws that are in place. Send people back that are here that think they are entitled to free everything. Our Veterans are getting the shaft. NOT FAIR! Make the other Governments pay for their people. Stop sending them money that we don’t have. Take care of our people. Stop the Cartels and the flow of drugs. M A G A –Make America Great Again!
Well I would say that NY was and is not smart for letting people make money off of the city, and for giving to people who do not like what is being done for them.
Yes I feel for these people, but what are they going to do for this country except take and take
If I was getting free eats I sure as hell wouldn’t complain about it not being “good enough”. I used to volunteer at a homeless kitchen but I stopped because there were too many there who complained as if they were paying customers at Delmonicos whose steak were under–cooked.
Deport…not feed.
The radical communist democrats deserve what they have created. Unfortunately all the good tax payers suffer as well. The “immigrants” deserve exactly what we would get from their government in their country if we came in illegally.
Send them back to where they came from. Let them be homeless in their native country, we don’t need or can afford to feed and house them here. There are enough Americans that need help .
This is likened to Hamas leadership sitting in Istanbul on their billions crying and moaning about the deplorable conditions in Gaza for the common people. Our government is like Hamas, sitting in WA on their illgotten fortunes while the rest of us pay for their largesse to the very invaders who are ruining our country and economy. Vote the buggers out,
It’s time to give them bologna sandwiches with bottled water!
If that doesn’t work send them back where they came from!!????????????????????
They can always go home
Americans are the most generous people in the world. In other countries that is not the case. Other countries would not put up with illegal immigrants coming there expecting to be taken care of. People need to start addressing the problems in their own countries. We fought a Civil War to enjoy the freedoms that we now have
Let the illegal alien cockroaches starve or go home! As they aren’t citizens, they have no rights period!!!
Let them go back home. I’m sure the meals there are delicious
Is Joe making $1000 per illegal that he allows to sneak into our country?? I will always and forever connect Joe Biden and his family to the corruption and crime family that they are!!! Mayor Adams is showing just how bad Democrats are at handling any kind of emergency!! But I have to wonder how the rest of the country thought that the southern states have been handling the massive influx of illegals for all of these years (I realize that Mayor Adams doesn’t care about Texas as long as the illegals don’t come to New York but now that they have…..)!!! Why do illegals get more in the welfare system than citizens?? Why do illegals cost more than citizens?? Why does Joe continue to keep the border open – does he even have a clue – I don’t think so!!!
They thought Adamscwas going to be “different” from DeBlasio. “I told you so” doesn’t seem enough. If it quacks, its a duck; if it has a “(D)” after its name…
If the people of New York are stupid enough to keep voting for the Democrats that caused this debacle them they deserve what they get
Why is it illegals essentially get ‘no questions asked’ welfare & benefits while a US citizen or veterans must jump though massive background info requests? One way to stop illegals is to cut off ALL welfare goodies so why don’t pinheads in DC do this?
And as directed by the DNC. they will all vote democratic.. paid voters for life..just as Barack Hussain Obama, promised fundamentally change America forever…make it look like him , F*** the constitution and all the dead old white men who created it..
Seems these illegals learn fast. These newbes in America have learned to enjoy the dowel even faster than our own.
The Feds?!? PLEASE. The cost’ll quadruple again.
Maybe they should go the hell back home for better food!! Trump is coming and free crap will end! Illegal means illegal!
Thanks for sharing this is absolutely ridiculous, everything about TRAITOR JOE BIDEN is ,,DON’T Forget ITS the DEMS that caused the problem
The migrants aren’t hungry or they would be gracious about what they received…Ny putting them up hotels was silly ..tent city is what it should have been from the beginning. Allowing the city some time to create some dorm like facilities out of abandoned warehouses or buildings..create schools in the old unused schools
When do they start to load planes to send them back they do nothing but complain they get treated better then the citizens here in the country that would be the homeless and vets as well the White House cannot build that border wall they do not know how to stop them from just walking into this country we has a doing nothing president and vice president and all the others that let this happen up in the White House.