Officials in New York City have quietly told hundreds of migrants that the city will stop funding hotels in upstate Albany and migrants will have to leave their free lodging by mid-December.
Democrat Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has told up to 220 migrant families currently lodged in hotels in Albany, New York, that their deadline of Dec. 31 has been moved forward to Dec. 15 as the city moves to phase out its funding of the hotels only a week after Donald Trump won his election to a second term in Washington.
The announcement came on the heels of the arrest of several migrants in Rensselaer, New York, in connection with a murder in Connecticut that is suspected of being tied to the dangerous, bloodthirsty Venezuelan Tren de Aragua criminal gang. Rensselaer police reported that those arrested in New York had tattoos identified as markings used by members of the gang, according to WIVB-TV.
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple added recently that the dangerous gang definitely has a presence in his jurisdiction, saying, “if anybody thinks that Tren de Aragua is not here is being misled, there’s no doubt they’re here.”
New York City officials are also phasing out funding for several other hotels in the city itself. The 23-room Hotel Merit in Times Square and the 73-room Quality Inn JFK Airport are both losing their city migrant contracts at the end of this year, the New York Post reported.
The paper added that the price tag to house migrants in hotels burdens the city treasury to the tune of $352 a night, and $130 of that goes to the owners of the hotel. The rest goes to social services, food, and cleaning costs.
Even with these rollbacks, though, the city is still looking to contract for 14,000 rooms for migrants over the next few years, totaling up to about $6.1 billion in spending, with $2.41 billion having already been spent since 2022.
New York City is not the only metropolis throwing millions if not billions at renting hotel rooms for migrants. The city of Denver is also engaging in this practice.
Since taking office in 2023, Democrat Mayor Mike Johnston has spent upwards to $138 million on hotel rooms for migrants, Westworld magazine reported.
Johnston’s administration purchased outright three hotels and leased three more to be used for free migrant housing, the magazine reported.
A large portion of the money reportedly came from “left over” federal funding that was supposed to have been dedicated to COVID-19 relief.
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