A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
About two years ago, buses full of migrants began arriving in New York City. Now, you might remember the images - people waiting on the streets of Manhattan to be processed at the Roosevelt Hotel, which city officials had turned into an intake center and shelter. That hotel became a symbol of the massive wave of immigration under the Biden administration, and now it's closing its doors permanently. NPR correspondent Jasmine Garsd joins us now.
So you were one of the few reporters allowed into the hotel. What do you remember about that time?
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: Oh, my God, the heat. I spent a lot of time in 2023 in this really muggy New York City heat, right around this time of year. And I was in line with people who'd recently been allowed across the U.S.-Mexico border and then came to New York. And one of the first people I spoke to was an Ecuadoran man named Jose Luis. He asked that his last name be withheld because he'd fled cartel violence. And he had been sleeping on the sidewalk of the Roosevelt Hotel for four days, waiting for intake.
JOSE LUIS: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: And what he told me is, look, all I'm asking for is a room to stay in until I can find work, and then I'm going to get my own place.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, these people are coming a long way, from at least the Southern border all the way to New York. So how are they getting to the Roosevelt?
GARSD: Yeah. So a lot of it was word of mouth. You know, people had been told there were jobs and there was shelter in New York. But also, Texas governor Greg Abbott sent over 37,000 immigrants to New York City on buses as, like, a political statement. In some ways, this was a crisis by design.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, you spent a lot of time inside the actual hotel, the Roosevelt. What did you see in there?
GARSD: It was so wild to be in there. It's, like, a very swanky 1920s-style hotel with chandeliers and wide staircases. And then there were also interpreters, health care workers scrambling to help. It really did feel like a modern-day Ellis Island. And the families I spent time with were extremely eager to get jobs and move on with life. You know, A, one of my favorite reports that I've ever done was about a Girl Scout troop for migrant kids living in shelters like Roosevelt.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) Make new friends but keep the old.
GARSD: And that's the troop singing. It was a bunch of 9- and 10-year-old kids who'd done these very traumatic, long treks up Latin America, through the Darien Gap, and were now learning English and American civics.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow. What happened to the people living at the Roosevelt?
GARSD: Well, you know, soon after it opened, New York City leaders said, listen, we're overwhelmed. But this year, border crossings are at a historic low. So migrants aren't coming into shelters at the same rate, and the city says it's relocated the remaining families to other shelters.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Now, I remember the Roosevelt being, like, this flash point in public opinion on immigration. I mean, has that opinion changed since it first opened?
GARSD: Yeah. You know, the hotel became a talking point for Republicans. It was discussed as a hotbed for crime. There was really no evidence of this. But at the time, a historic number of Americans - over half - felt that the U.S. needed to decrease immigration rates. A new poll out this week by NPR and PBS found that 54% of Americans feel immigration enforcement has now gone too far.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Jasmine Garsd, an immigration correspondent for NPR. Jasmine, thanks.
GARSD: Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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