'Incredibly shameful': 'Fox & Friends' hosts reveal migrants are being paid more with pre-paid debit cards in NYC than deployed US troops

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Weekend hosts Pete Hegseth and Will Cain joined regular co-host Carley Shimkus to discuss New York City's decision to assist migrants with a prepaid debit card scheme on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, episode of 'Fox & Friends'.

Introducing the subject, Shimkus shared that the scheme was "part of a $53 million program," which provided an average family of 4 (migrants) more than $1400 per month."

"It is more than the allowance of some deployed troops," she noted while citing a Fox News opinion piece that read, "While an average military family is suffering from a deficit of $1,860 over a period of nine months, a similarly sized illegal migrant family is being given nearly seven times more."

Will Cain's take on the issue

"I think it is incredibly shameful for us as a country," began weekend host Will Cain. "The deficit is reflecting soldiers who are deployed versus what is given to an illegal immigrant," he said.

"It's not as though we hung out this welcome sign ... we have a sign that even says, 'Now hiring or giving out free money,'" he observed, before adding, "There's a saying ... cards at the table if you can't figure out who the mark is, you are the mark. This is embarrassing for America that we are giving out (nearly) $1500 a month ..."

He did share concern over the cards being likely targets of criminals, before mentioning the demands made by Mexican President Andres Obrador earlier this week.

"(He) basically said, I'm going to keep flooding you until you send me money," claimed Cain. "We're the mark ... politically (and) locally to deal with the problems, and it's all a reflection of our leadership. The world has looked at us and gone, 'That's our piggy bank,'" Cain added.

Pete Hegseth compares allowances of deployed US troops and migrants

Following Cain, Hegseth stated that the migrants in NYC are "getting more per month on a card than a guy gets to go to Afghanistan in extra combat pay."

"It's maybe $250 a month in extra combat pay to get shot at in some bleephole country. That's less than someone gets paid on a card to come here illegally," he continued, before adding, "Add that up for a family of four, and they are doing just fine."

"When you get deployed, you get maybe a little more basic allowance for housing, maybe a little more basic allowance for food, your family, but otherwise, you know what you signed up for in the first place," he added.