New York City ends program paying for illegal immigrants' upstate hotel stays

The free stay is over for illegal immigrants staying in Albany, NY hotel rooms. New York City Mayor Eric Adams  has decided to tell about 220 migrant families that they can no longer stay at the upstate hotels at taxpayer expense and will be expected to move out by Dec. 15, 2024, Breitbart reported Tuesday. 

New York City officials are also telling illegal immigrants to move out of some hotels located within the city limits. The Hotel Merit in Times Square and the Quality Inn JFK Airport will no longer be designated as migrant hostels after Dec. 31, 2024. The New York Post noted that housing illegal immigrants has become a very pricey sideline for the city government, costing $352 a night. The hotel owners see $130 of that while the remainder is spent on social services, food and cleaning. But even if it divesting itself of a handful of hotels, NYC taxpayer are still on the hook for 14,000 rooms for the illegal immigrants who have flooded the city. That will cost about $6.1 billion over the few years while the city has already doled out $2.42 billion in the last two years.

Adams would appear to be uncertain about how to best deal with the influx of illegal immigrants into the city. While he has indicated that he believes the voters have spoken “loudly and clearly” about the need for the system to “be fixed” and has who just ended a free debit card giveaway for migrants, city officials have indicated their unwillingness to work with new border czar Tom Homan on deporting illegal immgrants because the metropolis is a sanctuary city. Homan has indicated he will get the job done with or without their help.

The announcement was issued just after police in Rensselaer, NY arrested several illegal immigrants who are suspects in a Connecticut murder that the Venezuelan organized crime gang Tren de Aragua could be responsible for. Rensselaer police said several of those charged were tattooed with the gang’s symbol, according to WIVB-TV. Said Albany County Sheriff Albany Craig Apple: “If anybody thinks that Tren de Aragua is not here is being misled, there’s no doubt they’re here.”

According to a report from the Washington DC-based non-profit Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), federal, state and municipal governments paid $150 billion for costs surrounding illegal immigration in 2023.