Should New York give migrants free luxury hotel rooms? Americans weigh in

NEW YORK – Americans gave Fox News split answers on whether they support New York City’s plan to provide migrants with hotel rooms.

“I think if they’re available … why let them go vacant when someone needs a room?” Jerry, from Florida, told Fox News outside the Row NYC, an upscale hotel the city plans to use. “Right now there’s a desperate situation for certain people that has to be taken into consideration and maybe given priority until they can be placed in some other facility.”

But Frank, a longtime New Yorker, said the idea was “absolutely ludicrous.”

“I think that I understand New York trying to provide for all these different people, but … teach them how to work or something,” he said. “Don’t let somebody get a free ride on the taxpayer.”

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For weeks, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been sending busloads of migrants to New York City, to protest what he sees as a failure to act on the border crisis by the Biden administration.

Mayor Eric Adams is trying to secure nearly 6,000 hotel rooms to house those border crossers, the New York Post reported this week. Adams has criticized Abbott, calling the Republican governor’s actions “horrific” and accused him of using people “as political pawns to manufacture a crisis.”

Frank told Fox News the easiest fix would be to strengthen and protect America’s borders. He said he’s upset that people in other states, particularly Texas, are “laughing at New York” as the city’s leaders “give away everything that the taxpayers built.”

“Don’t let New York become a laughing stock,” Frank said.

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Chris, a tourist from Illinois staying at the Row, told Fox News he sympathizes with residents struggling to pay rent and now must see their taxpayers go toward providing housing for illegal immigrants.

“They’ve got to put them somewhere, I understand,” he said. “But I still think that we need to have some kind of control over our borders and some kind of plan in action to house the people.”

“What’s the long term?” he continued. “How long are they going to be in the hotel?”

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As rents citywide continue to skyrocket and as the homeless crisis grows, Chris said the city might want to focus resources elsewhere.

The median rental price in Manhattan was $4,150 in July – almost $1,000 more than it was during the same month last year, a July report from real estate company Douglas Elliman showed. And more than 50,000 homeless people slept in New York City shelters each night in June, according to the nonprofit Coalition for the Homeless.

“You’ve got homeless people that live here that should be taken care of before … the immigrants that are coming in here,” Chris said.

Sam agreed.

“I just feel like there’s enough people here who are, you know, from the country that need support themselves,” she said.

But Ana-Brit, who was visiting from Cincinnati, said America should strive to be the kind of country that helps other people.

“It’s not fair to anyone … with rent how expensive it is,” she said. “But New York is also a place where it’s for everyone.”

It’s a city where anyone can belong,” Ana-Brit added. “And it’s a good entry point for many … especially [people who are] new to America.”

Lisa, of Brooklyn, called the city’s idea to use hotel rooms for housing “amazing” and said it will be “such a big comfort” to migrants arriving in New York.

“When people are in need, you have to pull the stops to give them what they want and what is necessary for them to survive and make it through to the next day,” she said.