Historic Manhattan hotel to reopen as intake center for asylum-seeking migrants coming into NYC

An historic midtown Manhattan hotel is being reopened as a centralized intake center for the hundreds of asylum-seeking migrants arriving daily in New York City at a pace expected "to rapidly accelerate" due to the expiration of a pandemic-era expulsion policy, Mayor Eric Adams' office announced.

The opening of the intake center, at the Roosevelt Hotel on East 45th Street, comes shortly after the expiration of the pandemic-era policy, known at Title 42. The policy, implemented in March 2020 by the Trump administration and continued for more than two years by the Biden administration, allowed federal officials to turn away asylum seekers from the U.S. border with Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adams announced Saturday that the city will use the Roosevelt to eventually provide as many as 1,000 rooms for migrants who are expected to arrive in coming weeks.

The reopening of the 98-year-old, 1,025-room Roosevelt Hotel will initially mean up to 175 rooms for children and families. The city will eventually expand the number to 850, with another 150 available to other asylum seekers. 

The storied hotel, near Grand Central Terminal, served as election headquarters for New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, who in 1948 was said to have wrongly announced from the Roosevelt that he had defeated Harry Truman for president. Guy Lombardo and The Royal Canadians became the hotel’s house band in 1929 and popularized “Auld Lang Syne” as a New Year’s Eve standard during annual New Year’s Eve radio broadcasts.

Adams has warned that the policy's expiration on May 11 would accelerate the arrival of migrants into the city, which, he reiterated in a news release, “has reached its capacity.” He said the city is running out of room for migrants and requires financial help from the state and federal governments. 

To house and care for the migrants, the Adams administration has opened more than 140 emergency shelters and eight other large-scale centers. Adams has criticized the Biden administration for failing to provide enough money to handle the influx and for the slow pace of work authorizations for migrants.

Since last year, thousands of migrants have been bused into New York on orders from border-state governors in protest over the Biden administration's immigration policies.

"New York City has now cared for more than 65,000 asylum seekers — already opening up over 140 emergency shelters and eight large-scale humanitarian relief centers in addition to this one to manage this national crisis," the mayor said in the statement.

Migrants who come to the U.S. and file for asylum are eventually given hearing dates, which typically are scheduled for years into the future; the majority are ultimately denied permission to stay, according to the TRAC data research center at Syracuse University.

The Roosevelt is just one of a number of New York hotels — many close to Times Square, the World Trade Center memorial site — the Empire State Building and other popular tourist destinations — that have been transformed into emergency shelters. A longstanding legal mandate, all but unique to New York City, requires the city to provide shelter to anyone who needs it.

The hotel will reopen within a week, said Fabien Levy, Adams' press secretary.

It's not new for the city to turn to hotels for New Yorkers without homes when shelters and other options weren't available.

"It is our moral and legal obligation to provide shelter to anyone who needs it," the city's Department of Social Services said in a statement. "As such, we have utilized, and will continue to utilize, every tool at our disposal to meet the needs of every family and individual who comes to us seeking shelter."

With Michael O'Keeffe and AP

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.