New York City is planning on renting a further 5,000 hotel rooms to accommodate the migrants arriving on buses in the city from Texas and Arizona, as the city struggles to house the new arrivals.
The 5,000 rooms will come on top of the 1,000 rooms the city announced they would rent last week.
A solicitation letter was sent on Wednesday by the Department of Social Services, detailing the request.
No cost was given, and they did not specify which hotels they planned to use.
Manuel Castro, the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, is seen on August 12 welcoming new arrivals from Texas and Arizona
On Monday it emerged that a luxury hotel in the center of Manhattan is set to become a hub for housing the asylum-seeking migrants.
The Row, which is based near tourist-packed Times Square, will become a shelter for as many as 600 migrant families.
Sources claim that they are going to place families and single people who have traveled from Texas after Gov Greg Abbott unveiled his plan to start transporting people from his southern state.
The plush hotel is understood to be working with Mayor Eric Adams to convert part of the building, where rooms can cost more than $400-a-night, into an intake center.
A hotel security guard told DailyMail.com on Monday that there were no migrants currently in staying in The Row.
He added that the hotel is expecting a group of migrants from the Department of Homeland Security within the month.
The security guard said that as far as he knew, the rooms being given to the migrants will be standard rooms all on the same floor.
The Row, a $400-a-night luxury hotel based near tourist-packed Times Square, will become a shelter for as many as 600 migrant families. It is not clear if one floor will be made available or if they will be across the property
The plush hotel is understood to be working with Mayor Adams to convert part of the hotel, where rooms can cost more than $400-a-night, into an intake center
A security guard at Row NYC told DailyMail.com that migrants will be moved to rooms such as this one
The Row is accepting bookings through September and October on various booking sites with no disclaimer about the possible presence of illegal immigrants
The security guard added that the hotel is expecting a group of migrants from the Department of Homeland Security within the month
There has been no official announcement from City Hall regarding how much the 28-story and 1,300 room hotel plan will cost, or which department will be heading the operation
In a separate interview, a worker at the hotel told the New York Post: ‘In a month or two, we’re about to open up for the city Department of Homeless Services, for homeless.
‘They’re working on an agreement, a contract. It’ll be here at this hotel, but they’ll keep the DHS shelter on a certain floor. But that hasn’t started yet, they said a month or two.’
There has been no official announcement from City Hall regarding how much the 28-story and 1,300 room hotel plan will cost, or which department will be heading the operation.
The Row is accepting bookings through September and October on various booking sites with no disclaimer about the possible presence of illegal immigrants.
At an unrelated press conference on Monday, Mayor Adams said that New York would ‘treat these people with dignity’ that Texas has failed to do
A child today gave a thumbs up to reporters after arriving from Texas to New York’s Port Authority Bus Station on a bus with their family
Sources claim that the plan was fast-tracked to try to help deal with the surge of asylum-seekers traveling to the Big Apple, after more than 300 have arrived in the past two weeks.
The Row struck a deal with the city after the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) issued a desperate plea for proposals last week.
The department solicitation includes a request for bilingual staff and added: ‘The population served by the selected vendor will be families with children, adult couples and individual adults.’
City Hall did not immediately respond to a DailyMail.com request for comment.
The hotel is located around three blocks from the Port Authority Bus Terminal where Abbott has been sending busloads of migrants,
More than 300 asylum-seekers have arrived in the Big Apple in the past two weeks, meaning that the hotel plan was fast-tracked because of the surge
When contacted by DailyMail.com a spokeswoman for The Row declined to comment.
The hotel is located around three blocks from the Port Authority Bus Terminal where Abbott has been sending busloads of migrants, in a protests against President Biden’s ‘Irresponsible open border policies.’
It also housed homeless people during the height of the COVID pandemic, which first reported it was under consideration as a shelter for migrants.
At an unrelated press conference on Monday, Mayor Adams said: ‘We are going to provide these families with the dignity that the Texas Governor failed to do that is who we are as New Yorkers that is who we are as an administration.’
Texas governor Greg Abbott began to bus undocumented migrants to New York City in a symbolic show of protest for President Joe Biden ending a pandemic program that allows border agents to more easily thwart illegal border crossings.
One man gave a thumbs up as he crossed the road with a charity worker to be taken to a shelter after the long journey from Texas on Monday
The Row struck a deal with the city after the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) issued a desperate plea for proposals last week. The department solicitation includes a request for bilingual staff as the majority of those arriving do not speak much English
New York has considered itself a sanctuary city for undocumented migrants and does not cooperate with immigration enforcement officers on deportation or detention matters.
On Tuesday, Adams called Abbott’s program ‘irresponsible’ for using human beings for a ‘political ploy.’
He also threatened to bus New Yorkers to Texas in order to knock on doors for Abbott’s upcoming gubernatorial opponent, Beto O’Rourke.
‘I already called all of my friends in Texas and told them how to cast their vote,’ Adams said. ‘I am deeply contemplating taking a busload of New Yorkers to go to Texas and do some good old fashion doorknocking, because for the good of America we have to get him out of office.’
He had previously called Abbott’s program ‘horrific.’