• NYC’s Roosevelt Hotel has become a hotbed for Tren de Aragua gang activity, where children as young as 11-years-old are recruited

• Purchased by the Pakistani government in 2000, it now leases the hotel to the City of New York for $220 million for use as a migrant processing center

• Owners were planning on closing the hotel permanently, but were forced to re-open after its union demanded $66 million

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Following a quote tweet from incoming Department of Government Efficiency co-czar Vivek Ramaswamy, New York City’s Roosevelt Hotel has returned to the spotlight in the discourse around immigration, state capacity, and NYC local politics. “A taxpayer-funded hotel for illegal migrants is owned by the Pakistani government which means NYC taxpayers are effectively paying a foreign government to house illegals in our own country. This is nuts,” Ramaswamy said.

Since becoming a shelter in 2023, the hotel has been riddled with crime and gang activity, serving as a headquarters and recruiting grounds for notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which employs migrant children as young as 11 years old. A crew known as “Los Diablos de la 42,” or “the Devils of 42nd Street,” lives in the hotel and targets tourists in nearby Times Square in brazen robberies which they post about online. Citizen journalist Nick Shirley recently interviewed potential young gang members outside the hotel as they flashed gang signs and simulated gunfire.

The gangs are terrorizing asylum seekers inside the hotel as well. “I’ve heard of the devils of 42nd Street. I hear all the time about the problems in the hotel. I try my best to never leave my room.” said Karen Silva, who lives in the Roosevelt with her 5-month-old daughter, when she was interviewed by the New York Post. “The reputation of this hotel is all over TikTok. We all know what the hotel is known for,” said Fernanda Rosa, a 35-year-old Ecuadorian mother who lives in the hotel.

The Roosevelt — once a bustling 4-star hotel in Midtown, Manhattan known as a long-time residence for stars like Marilyn Monroe and a popular set location for film and TV — was leased in 1979 by state-run Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), which eventually purchased the property in 2000. Declining into disrepair and struggling with occupancy over the next two decades, PIA eventually shuttered the Roosevelt in 2020 as a result of revenue loss from the COVID pandemic.

As part of a city-wide effort to address the surge in asylum-seekers, the Pakistani government leased the hotel’s 1,025 rooms to the City of New York in a three-year, $220 million agreement, allowing it to reopen in 2023. Dubbed NYC’s “new Ellis Island” by the New York Times, the Roosevelt would be the city’s main arrival center and temporary migrant shelter, and would ultimately see roughly 150,000 migrants from 160 countries pass through its doors.

The city’s deal with Pakistan came at the same time Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sought a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avoid defaulting on loans as the nation’s foreign currency reserves depleted. According to Bloomberg reporting, Pakistan was spending $25 million a year in taxes and salaries for the hotel — even after it had closed — and the country expected it to generate around $220 million and “help it clear all its liabilities including reconciliation of $66 million demanded by the hotel’s union.”

In fact, the Roosevelt’s union — the NY/NJ Hotel & Gaming Workers Union‚ did a victory lap celebrating their role in The Roosevelt’s return as well as their payout following the hotel’s reopening. After opening its doors as a shelter, Union employees demanded the options to either return to work at the hotel, or receive a “whopping $59 million in severance payments for those who wanted to leave.” The Roosevelt signed the agreement, and paid out the non-working employees. “I chose to take the enhanced severance, and now I’m able to stay home with my baby,” shared Johanna Ortiz, a former Housekeeping Supervisor at the Roosevelt. “The money has given me the financial security I need to provide a brighter future for my family. I’m so grateful to the Union for getting us this deal.”

Notorious for violence, and propped up by the taxpayers of New York City, The Roosevelt doesn’t seem to have meaningful change in its path until its three-year lease term expires in 2026. The Pakistani government plans to sell the building to make way for luxury condos and retail with the assistance of leading real estate brokerage firm JLL after the lease expires.

While New York Governer Kathy Hochul said, “never was it envisioned that this would be an unlimited, universal right or obligation on the city to have to house literally the entire world,” the program, with its coincident criminal activity, remains in place, causing knock-on economic effects hindering New York City’s tourism sector and shuttering nearby retail locations.

Since 2022, 135 of the city’s roughly 680 hotels — nearly 20 percent — have transitioned into migrant shelters, according to the New York Times. Currently, about 65,000 migrants are being sheltered in hotels and other arrangements by the city, thanks to its policy which requires it to provide a bed to anyone who needs one. New York City projects it will spend $10 billion over the next three fiscal years on such services. It has spent roughly $5.2 billion on the crisis over the last two years.

The Roosevelt Hotel remains the crown-jewel of New York’s hotel-based migrant shelter program. New York City, according to new ICE data, is home to 58,626 illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes, including 1,153 who are “suspected or known gang members.”

All that remains on the hotel’s website is the following quote from its namesake, Theordore Roosevelt: “We thank you all for letting us be part of the very best of New York for the last 100 years. We leave you with this thought from the man who inspired our existence: “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much.”

—Kevin Chaiken