The lights at the undocumented guest center at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York were turned off, and Chinese travelers expressed their feelings
The New York City Undocumented Reception Center and the shelter at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan shut down on the 24th, ending its two-year operation. It received more than 170,000 border visitors and was once the largest undocumented reception center in New York.
The next step for the century-old hotel is unknown
The 23rd was the last operating day for the reception center and the resettlement hotel, and the entire Roosevelt Hotel was completely closed from 7 a.m. on the 24th. The Roosevelt Hotel is now owned by Pakistan International Airlines. At present, it is unclear how the operator plans to deal with this century-old hotel in the future.
The Roosevelt Hotel opened in 1924. After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the hotel closed due to aging facilities, insufficient customer sources, and deteriorating finances. Starting from May 2023, the New York City government will rent the entire hotel. In accordance with the requirements of the New York City “Right of Asylum Law”, an Asylum Seeker Arrival Center and a Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center will be set up inside the hotel to provide registration, physical examinations, legal consultation and other services for newly arrived undocumented immigrants, and to arrange shelter beds for them uniformly.
170,000 people received, 4,000 people registered in a week during the peak period
According to data provided by Ted Long, senior deputy director of the outpatient department of the city’s public hospital system, in the first year of the establishment of the center alone, more than 150,000 people registered in the hotel and received various assistance, from about 160 countries. By February of this year, the total number of registered people reached 170,000, accounting for three-quarters of the total number of people who poured into New York during the entire wave of undocumented immigrants. During the peak period of undocumented immigrants, an average of more than 4,000 people were registered at the Roosevelt Hotel each week.
Chinese recalled waiting for several days in the lobby before getting a bed
Chinese migrant Qian Xiaozhe recalled that when he first arrived, it was the peak of traffic, and he waited for several days in the hotel lobby before being placed in a bed.
According to data and feedback from other Chinese migrants who have been resettled, the number of arrivals at the center has dropped significantly since the second half of 2024 after the Biden administration took relevant restrictive measures. By early 2025, the number of registrants received per week dropped to less than 100. In February of this year, Mayor Eric Adams announced that the reception center at the Roosevelt Hotel would be gradually closed and the service functions and guests would be integrated into other humanitarian resettlement agencies in the city.
According to New York City’s reception rules, single male undocumented migrants are assigned to beds in resettlement facilities or tent camps in the city, and families with children are eligible to stay in rooms at the Roosevelt Hotel. Li Kai, a Chinese who went to the United States with his family of four in 2023 to seek religious freedom asylum, said that during the three months he stayed in the hotel, the hotel staff would regularly go to the room to help clean, tidy up and change towels and bedding, etc. The city government would also provide three meals a day and weekly laundry services through the hotel.
According to reports, the city government rented the Roosevelt Hotel for 202 yuan per room per night. Li Kai said that he had the ability to work to support his family, so he moved out of the hotel as soon as he got a work permit and rented a house.
