Adams has committed to closing 53 more emergency shelter locations by June, which coincides with the hotel’s closure.
The city will close the Asylum Seeker Arrival Centre at the Roosevelt Hotel, which Elon Musk and the Trump administration have frequently criticised, according to a Monday announcement by New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
According to the Adams administration, since the hotel opened in May 2023, more than 173,000 migrants have registered there, making up over three-quarters of the 232,000 migrants who had arrived in the city since the spring of 2022.
Adams said in a statement on Monday, “Today marks another milestone in demonstrating the immense progress we have achieved in turning the corner on an unprecedented international humanitarian effort, even though we’re not done caring for those who come into our care.”
His administration has “skilfully managed this crisis,” the mayor continued, adding that the Roosevelt Hotel has been “key in allowing us to effectively manage our operations.”
Adams announced the closing of the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centre at Roosevelt in addition to closing the hotel’s welcome centre.
The mayor attributed the decision to close the core centre at the Roosevelt Hotel to a decline in migrant registrations and the success of refugees who had “sought care” from the city to take their “next steps in their journeys.”
While during the “height of the international asylum seeker crisis,” an average of 4,000 migrants arrived in New York City each week, according to Adams’ administration, the average number of registrants in the city has decreased to approximately 350 migrants per week in subsequent months.
The hotel’s shutdown complements the city’s intentions to close 53 additional emergency shelter locations by June, Adams said. Less than 45,000 migrants are currently in the city’s custody, according to the administration, down from a peak of 69,000 last month.
The mayor’s statement follows days after the city sued the Trump administration on Friday, claiming $80 million that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had previously approved for migrant hotel expenses.
In court documents, the City of New York alleges that the Trump administration “reached into a central bank account of the City of New York (the “City”) and grabbed” the funds.
According to the lawsuit, “it appropriated these funds from the City without providing any prior notice that it would be doing so and without communicating any decision or rationale to the City.”
The lawsuit claims that the $80 million included a $59 million grant and a $21.5 million award for the city’s expenses to maintain its asylum seeker system that were given out during the tenure of former President Joe Biden but weren’t paid out until this month.
In a post on X earlier this month, Elon Musk, Trump’s billionaire advisor and the man behind the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said that the money “violated the law.”
“The @DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants,” Musk wrote in a post on February 10. “Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order.”
On February 12, Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and a participant in the city’s lawsuit, declared that she had “clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels.”
Noem said that Tren de Aragua utilised the Roosevelt Hotel as a “base of operations” and that it was “used to house Laken Riley’s killer.”
“Mark my words: there will not be a single penny spent that goes against the interest and safety of the American people,” Noem wrote in a post on X.
Since meeting with Trump border czar Tom Homan in December, Adams has reaffirmed his support for Homan’s goals, which has led to the conflict between Adams and the Trump administration.
In an appearance with “Fox and Friends” later that day, Homan stated that he would ensure Adams fulfilled his commitments during their second meeting on February 14.
In the interview, Homan stated, “I’ll be back in New York City and we won’t be sitting on the couch if he doesn’t come through.” “Where the hell is the agreement we came to?” I’ll be up his butt in his office.
Trump’s Justice Department was able to postpone Adams’ trial on federal corruption charges indefinitely last week, despite the disagreement over FEMA funding, which sparked claims of a “quid pro quo” agreement between Adams and Trump regarding immigration.
Following the case’s dismissal, a number of senior Justice Department officials in New York resigned, pressing Adams to step down himself and citing the purported quid pro quo.
While announcing a number of new measures to restrict the power of Adams’ office, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Thursday that she would not remove Adams from office.