Activists and several elected officials gathered outside New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office in the Capitol in Albany on Monday to protest the closure of two hotels housing several hundred migrants in the state’s capital region.
New York City has a “right to shelter” law, requiring the city to provide shelter for anyone who asks for it and has no other options.
Protest organizers said they were advocating for Hochul to intervene to prevent the migrants’ eviction and to provide new state funding to shelter the migrants.
Speaking during the protest, Angelica Perez-Delgado, president of the pro-migrant nonprofit Ibero-American Action League, said, “Our need right now is to ensure that people in our hotels are not evicted. We need leadership and money from Gov. Hochul right now to fund at least six months of housing and related services.”
BLUE STATE TO SHUTTER OVER DOZEN MIGRANT SHELTERS AS TRUMP’S SET TO IMPLEMENT DEPORTATION AGENDA
Rosa De La Cruz of the Ibero-American Action League speaks as a coalition of elected officials and members of the public urge New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislators to provide emergency funding to prevent the eviction of asylum seekers from Albany hotels during a rally at the Capitol on Dec. 9, 2024. (Hans Pennink for Fox News Digital)
The migrants in Albany have been staying at a Ramada Plaza and Holiday Inn Express, both of which are being paid for by the New York City government and are set to close this month.
The hundreds in Albany are just a fraction of the 58,000 migrants being housed by the city of New York and the more than 223,000 migrants who have received taxpayer aid since 2022.
According to a report released this year by the New York City Comptroller’s Office, the city is projected to spend $987 million in two years on contracted hotels for tens of thousands of migrants. In total, the city is projected to spend more than $12 billion in responding to the migrant surge through fiscal 2025.
Since the election of President-elect Donald Trump last month, however, the city has moved to scale back its shelter program, closing some 12 shelters by the end of the year.
NYC HOME TO NEARLY 60K ‘CRIMINAL’ MIGRANTS: REPORT
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been behind many of the moves to crack down on services for migrants. (Michael Appleton mayoral photography office)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been behind many of the moves to crack down on services for migrants, saying, “We have been wasting taxpayers’ money for far too long.”
The city has already shuttered two hotels-turned-migrant shelters: the Hotel Merit in Manhattan and the Quality Inn JFK in Queens. Eight more shelters in Dutchess, Erie, Orange and Westchester counties are also set to close by the end of the year.
The protest against the closures was organized by a group called Columbia County Sanctuary Movement and a coalition of local nonprofits.
One of the protest leaders, Bryan McCormack, co-executive director of the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement, said migrant families “should not be forced to abandon their jobs or uproot their lives to return to New York City shelters.”
MAYOR ADAMS CALLS FOR ‘INVOLUNTARY REMOVAL’ OF PEOPLE WHO ARE ‘A DANGER TO OTHERS’ ON THE STREETS
Columbia County Sanctuary Movement Co-Executive Director Bryan MacCormack, speaks during a rally at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., on Dec. 9, 2024. (Hans Pennink for Fox News Digital)
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