New York will close the last hotel it used to house illegal immigrants.

The last hotel in the city of New York that Democratic authorities used as a shelter for illegal immigrants will cease operations next year. 

The Row Hotel, the first building of its kind to be converted into a shelter for illegal migrants in 2022, is located one block from Times Square and under Biden's presidency housed tens of thousands of undocumented individuals in its 1,300 luxury units. 

The contract that the building's ownership group had with the New York City administration cost the city more than 5 million dollars per month. For this reason, Eric Adams, the current mayor, announced on Monday that the city will not renew it, describing the hotel's closure as "an important milestone in our administration's recovery from this international humanitarian crisis." 

The Row Hotel. | La Derecha Diario

Tren de Aragua had taken control of the area. 

"Three years ago, thousands of migrants began arriving in our city every week and my administration stepped up. We opened hundreds of emergency shelters for migrants to ensure that no family slept on the street. Since then, we have successfully helped more than 200,000 migrants leave our shelter system," Adams said proudly. 

At the most critical migration point, when Biden's administration allowed anyone who dared to cross the border illegally to enter U.S. soil, New York City operated 220 shelters for migrants. In 2024, 80% of the 193 active shelters were former hotels that taxpayers funded to house illegal immigrants. 

Thus, The Row had become an area of crime and chaos, with numerous reports of theft and attacks on New York police officers by criminals who were allegedly linked to the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.

Residents celebrate the hotel's closure. 

Residents of the area celebrated the closure of the hotel as a shelter for immigrants. "There are people sitting here all day, leaving trash, food waste, water bottles. Many have children, and there are women sitting here smoking marijuana all day, while the children play in the street with their bicycles," a witness said. 

The residents' relief is due to President Trump's immigration policies, which have reduced illegal border crossings to almost zero. So much so that the Democratic network CNN recently predicted that the United States will have negative net migration in 2025 for the first time in the last 50 years.

A spokesperson for Adams's office stated that the city government "has purchased more than 65,000 bus tickets to help migrants leave the shelter system and reach their preferred destinations." The cost of each unit that received undocumented individuals at the Row was around 3,900 dollars per month.