A former posh Manhattan hotel is now housing migrants who have created the hotel into a “free for all” of lawlessness and violence.
The Hotel’s Dirty Secret
The Row Hotel is “closed until further notice,” according to their website. Recently migrant children were regularly spotted intoxicated, a former employee said.
Carlos Arellano, the former employee, said the Row NYC Hotel is a “free for all” as drugs, sex and violence engulf the hotel, which is now one of the city’s largest housing areas for migrants.
Arellano detailed a heartbreaking discovery where he claimed to have found a ten-year-old girl drunk in her hotel room with her parents nowhere to be found. He added that it, sadly, was not a one-off incident.
“Every day, we find about ten kids alone in their hotel rooms, either drinking or doing drugs. Weapons will be in the room. But we’re not allowed to go in there. We’re not allowed to take anything from them. It’s basically a free-for-all,” Arellano said.
It’s a “Madhouse”
One migrant father currently staying at the luxury Row NYC in Midtown described the 1,300-room hotel on Eighth Avenue, which was converted last year to help house the influx of migrants, as a “madhouse” after dark.
“Come around 9 or 10 p.m., it’s crazy,” the father said.
“People [are] drinking aguardiente and smoking weed outside all night since we can’t bring that in,” the exasperated parent continued. “The police have come and pushed them out some nights so now they gather at the corners.”
Nearby stores and restaurants also complained about the unrest occurring across the street, which has hampered their tourist-reliant businesses in recent months.
“It doesn’t look good,” said Gustavo Rosario, manager of Iron Bar, about the hedonism on display across the street. “Now we open the window, and if they are smoking marijuana, all the smoke [starts] coming inside. People get uncomfortable.”
NYC Hotel – The Row
The Row was a popular tourist hotel in the city’s theater district. In light of the migrant crisis, the hotel is no longer open to guests and has become a dedicated migrant hotel for individuals who have completed the trek from the southern border to New York City.
In a memo from the New York City Office of Management, reported by the New York Post, the city will spend an estimated $4.2 billion on costs related to migrants and asylum seekers through June 30, 2023, and the end of the fiscal year 2024.
At the Row specifically, it is costing taxpayers around $650,000 per night to house the migrants, ringing in around $500 per night per room.
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