With No Room at New York Hotel Called ‘New Ellis Island,’ Migrants Take to Sleeping in Cars on Street Outside

As New York City struggles to house the influx of migrants arriving in the Big Apple, some are now taking to sleeping in cars outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan that a city official dubbed a "new Ellis Island," according to a report. 

Men were spotted sleeping in four cars with out-of-state license plates on Christmas Day and Jan. 4 on Vanderbilt Avenue, near the Roosevelt Hotel that serves as the city's main intake center, Gothamist reported. 

The windows of the cars were fogged up, and empty pizza boxes and take-out containers were strewn near the vehicles.

“There’s no space in the hotel. It’s full,” one of the men, Hugo Rafael Ramirez. told the outlet.

Ramirez, a 22-year-old migrant from Venezuela, said he uses his Honda as an Uber during the day and at night allows his friends to sleep in it. 

Yovani Nieves, 23, said he drove his Mitsubishi Lancer from Canada where he had been working to New York City to escape the harsh Canadian winter but the car broke down when he reached the Roosevelt Hotel. 

He's been sleeping in his car since being turned away from the hotel. 

“They're just helping the people who have families, little kids,” Nieves, also from Venezuela, said. “If you’re a single man, they kick you out, send you to the street.”

City Hall spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak said she couldn't comment on Nieves' claim, but disputed the idea that a migrant would be turned away from the hotel. 

City officials said a variety of resources are available at an "asylum seeker resource center" at the hotel, that Gothamist said one city official described as a "new Ellis Island."

Roughly 160,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since 2022 but the city is scrambling to find temporary housing and social services for about 70,000 migrants. 

This week, parents at James Madison High School in Brooklyn were outraged when about 2,000 migrants being housed in tents at Floyd Bennett Field were moved to the school after a storm with heavy rains and high winds tore through the city. 

Students at the school had to switch to remote learning to accommodate the migrants.

Migrant families who have hit the 60-day deadline in the city shelter system are being directed to reapply for placement at the Roosevelt Hotel, Gothamist reported.

Mayor Eric Adams said the process will be orderly. 

“This is not going to be a city where we're going to place children and families on the street and have them sleep on the street," he said this week. "That is not going to happen."