New York City is closing the illegal immigrant shelter at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan as the number of illegal aliens arriving in the Big Apple plunges, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced Monday.
The Roosevelt shelter, a powerful symbol of the illegal immigration crisis that erupted under the Biden administration, is one of 50 New York City migrant shelters set to close due to the plunge in weekly arrivals to 350 a week from a peak of 4,000.
In May 2023, the Roosevelt shelter opened at the peak of the illegal immigration crisis in New York City, and since then 173,000 migrants have received its services. The migrant shelter had problems with gang activity and aliens living around it while waiting for beds. As the Biden administration allowed record numbers of illegal immigrants to pour into the U.S., critics pointed to the Roosevelt Hotel as an example of Democrats enabling the immigration crisis and prioritizing illegal immigrants over American citizens.
New York City’s dramatic decline in illegal immigrant arrivals comes as the Trump administration cracks down on southern border crossings and launches mass deportations, with an emphasis on violent criminals. Trump’s actions to curtail illegal immigration caused border crossings to hit record lows during his first month in office, a stark contrast from his predecessor.
An estimated 45,000 illegal migrants are still living in converted facilities across New York City, a decline from 69,000 in January 2024. Adams called the closure of the Roosevelt shelter a “milestone” but hesitated to declare victory against the illegal migration crisis.
The Trump administration has moved to drop the federal corruption charges against Adams, an action that caused several federal prosecutors to resign in protest. Adams has expressed openness to working with the Trump administration on its immigration crackdown, leading some to accuse him of entering a quid pro quo.
At one point, the Roosevelt shelter housed Jose Antonio Ibarra, the Venezuelan illegal immigrant who killed Georgia nursing student Laken Riley last year. The murder also turned into a national flashpoint about immigration policy and inspired bipartisan legislation requiring federal agents to detain aliens arrested for theft and related crimes. The legislation was the first bill Trump signed in his second term and became an early win for the 47th president on illegal immigration.
New York City filed a lawsuit last week against the Trump administration to recuperate as much as $80 million of funds for sheltering illegal migrants that the Department of Homeland Security clawed back.
Billionaire Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, said earlier this month that his team found $59 million that the Federal Emergency Management Administration had sent to the Big Apple hotels. DHS quickly fired four FEMA employees involved with the spending and recuperated the funding.