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

The Roosevelt Hotel, a century-old building in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, became the improbable symbol of New York City’s migrant crisis, nicknamed “the new Ellis Island” for its role as an arrival center for migrants seeking shelter in the city.

Images of immigrants languishing on the surrounding sidewalks as they waited for beds two summers ago emerged as a cultural and political flashpoint.

But in a sign of how the crisis has subsided, the hotel will cease operating as a shelter by June, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday. The decision was a watershed moment as the number of migrants arriving in the city continues to slow and officials dismantle the emergency shelter system they established nearly three years ago.

The storied hotel, which closed to guests in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic but got a second life as a migrant shelter, drew national attention at the height of the crisis. As thousands of migrants cycled through its faded lobby, the Roosevelt turned into a 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.

Monday’s announcement was yet another example of how a monthslong decline in crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border — during the end of the Biden administration and now under President Trump — has markedly eased the financial and political strain of the influx on cities. Chicago closed its last shelter that exclusively housed migrants in December, as did Denver.

The Roosevelt shelter, which still houses 2,852 migrants, is one of more than 50 that New York 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.