A shocking exposé of a Manhattan hotel turned migrant shelter reveals the disturbing reality of what goes on behind closed doors.
The Row NYC Hotel, once a popular destination for tourists and celebrities, is now one of the largest facilities for migrants in the city. But according to a former employee, Carlos Arellano, the hotel is anything but a safe haven for the newcomers.
Arellano, who worked as a site administrator for seven months, told Fox News and The New York Post that he witnessed rampant drug use, underage drinking, violence and sexual activity among the migrants and their children. He said he also found weapons and contraband in their rooms, but was powerless to intervene.
One of the most alarming incidents he recalled was finding a ten-year-old girl drunk in her room, with no sign of her parents. He said this was not an isolated case, as he and his colleagues would discover about ten kids alone in their rooms every day, either intoxicated or high.
“It’s basically a free-for-all,” Arellano said. “We’re not allowed to go in there. We’re not allowed to take anything from them.”
Arellano said he and his co-workers feared for their lives every day, as they faced verbal and physical abuse from some of the migrants. He said he was forced to quit his job after he was injured by a migrant who threw a chair at him.
The Row NYC Hotel is one of the many hotels in the city that have been converted into temporary shelters for migrants since last year, when a surge of asylum seekers arrived at the southern border. The city has already spent an estimated $2 billion to house over 43,000 migrants in hotels and other facilities, according to Mayor Eric Adams’ office. By the end of fiscal year 2024, they expect to spend an estimated $4.2 billion. At the Row alone, it is costing taxpayers around $650,000 per night to house the migrants, around $500 per night per room.
But while the city claims to provide humanitarian assistance and social services to the migrants, some critics say the hotel shelters are a waste of money and a source of chaos for the surrounding neighborhoods.
Gustavo Rosario, the manager of Iron Bar, a restaurant across the street from the Row NYC Hotel, told The New York Post that he has seen migrants smoking marijuana outside the hotel and causing trouble for his customers.
“It doesn’t look good,” Rosario said. “Now we open the window and if they are smoking marijuana, all the smoke [starts] coming inside. People get uncomfortable.”
Some migrants have also expressed dissatisfaction with their living conditions at the hotels, and have staged protests outside their facilities. About 50 single men who were staying at the Watson Hotel in Hell’s Kitchen refused to move to a new location in Brooklyn, saying they preferred their current accommodations.
Adams, who visited the border earlier this month, said he supports helping migrants but also warned that there is “no more room” for them in New York. He said the federal government should coordinate with local authorities and inform migrants about the reality of their situation in the city.
“In New York, you go there, you’re going to be living in congregate settings, that there is no more room in New York,” he told reporters. “That should be coordinated by our national government.”
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