Roosevelt Hotel Shelter, Symbol of NYC Migrant Crisis, Will Close

New York|Manhattan Hotel Shelter That Became Symbol of Migrant Crisis Will Close

The Roosevelt Hotel, nicknamed “the new Ellis Island” for its role as an arrival center during New York City’s migrant crisis, will shelter its last immigrant by June, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday, as officials dismantle the emergency shelter system they established nearly three years ago.

The century-old hotel in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, which closed in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic but got a second life as a migrant shelter, drew national attention in 2023 when hundreds of migrants waiting for beds briefly slept outside. As thousands of migrants cycled through its faded lobby, the Roosevelt emerged as an unlikely lightning rod in the country’s immigration debate: both as a reminder of the depth of the crisis and as shorthand for critics opposed to the expenditure of taxpayer money on migrants.

The welcome center in the lobby where migrants received shelter assignments and the hundreds of rooms housing families upstairs will close, city officials said. It was not immediately clear whether the hotel would reopen to tourists.

The announcement on Monday was a watershed moment in New York’s migrant response as the number of migrants arriving in the city continues to slow.

The Roosevelt shelter, which is housing 2,852 migrants, is one of more than 50 that the city has closed or announced it will shutter as the number of new arrivals has decreased. The city also recently closed two sprawling tent shelters on Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn and on Randall’s Island.

The closures have coincided with President Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has raised the prospect among immigration activists, lawyers and city officials that migrant shelters could be easily targeted by federal immigration authorities.