A couple’s wedding plans go awry after a New York state hotel hosting their guests abruptly canceled their rooms to make room for an influx of migrants.
Gary Moretti, 37, and Deanna Mifsud, 35, criticized The Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh after discovering it had canceled 30 rooms they booked just weeks before their wedding.
“It was absolutely devastating,” Moretti told DailyMail.com. “It really just hit us hard despite having contracts and thinking we were cooped up – it’s disrespectful.”
Moretti said the move, which comes after the end of title 42, sparked a flood of migrants across the southern border, could end up costing the couple more than $20,000 as they search for new accommodations for their 160 guests.
“It is absolutely shocking how they treat American people. How should taxpayers deal with this?’ he asked.
Gary Moretti, left, and Deanna Mifsud, right, had their upcoming wedding thrown into chaos when the hotel receiving their guests canceled their booking to accommodate migrants
The Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, New York, abruptly canceled bookings for 30 rooms for the couple’s June 24 wedding
The rooms will now house migrants (pictured) brought to the area by buses as NYC grapples with large numbers of asylum seekers pouring across its southern border
Moretti, who is originally from New York but moved to Florida several years ago, chose Crossroads because it was just 20 minutes from the lavish Lippincott Manor in Walkill, the venue for their June 24 wedding.
He now needs new accommodation and transport for guests, including bridesmaids and groomsmen, after the hotel gave priority to migrants.
The 37-year-old said he only discovered the crisis after seeing on the news that hotels across the state were accepting large numbers of migrants pouring across the border.
“I had to find out for myself,” he told DailyMail.com. “I called the management company because I was concerned about my bookings, and they just said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s all cancelled.'”
“They were so disrespectful, they just played it like it was nothing.”
Moretti said it was left to him to inform his guests, some of whom had prepared to travel from the west coast, that their hotel had been canceled for his wedding next month.
The wedding guests would come from all over the country, from states like California, Florida, Arizona, Minnesota and New Jersey.
“None of the guests have been notified,” he said. “If we hadn’t looked it up, they might never have told us.”
Moretti and Mifsud are now rushing to find last-minute accommodations for their 160 guests, including their bridesmaids and groomsmen
A man holds a sign welcoming the migrants to The Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, New York
The migrants (pictured) were among more than 10,000 people a day crossing the southern border in record numbers by the end of Title 42.
The large number of migrants in Upstate New York is a result of Mayor Eric Adams’ decision to move the asylum seekers north to relieve pressure on the Big Apple, as more than 10,000 people a day crossed the southern border in record numbers.
The Crossroads Hotel kicked more than a dozen homeless veterans out of their rooms just days earlier to make way for the influx of migrants.
Sharon Toney-Finch, who runs the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation to help the homeless, said that while the hotel did not give an explicit reason for the move, she felt the timing was revealing.
She said the $88 per day her organization pays for the stay dwarf what the city will pay them to house migrants, with some reports indicating that hotels can earn nearly $200 per room per night.
“That’s so unfair because at the end of the day, we’re a small non-profit and pay $88 a day for a veteran to be there,” she added.
The couple’s guests would come from all over the country, from states like California, Florida, Arizona, Minnesota and New Jersey
Migrants pictured arriving at The Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, where homeless veterans were kicked out to prepare for the influx
Moretti, a firefighter who moved to Florida for work several years ago, condemned his former state’s handling of the migrant crisis, saying he barely recognizes his former home.
“The way they approached it — including the homeless veterans — just amazes me,” Moretti added.
Everything I knew about New York has been destroyed.
“I am concerned about the state of affairs in this country. It’s not the migrant’s fault, but this state doesn’t want to do anything.’
Moretti and Mifsud aren’t alone in their predicament, with the Crossroads Hotel also canceling rooms earmarked for the wedding of Queens couple Sean Plunkett and Nicole Hoeffrle.
Plunkett said CBS news the situation left him and his bride-to-be feeling “much pushed aside.”
Choice Hotels, the brand under which Crossroads operates, has been approached for comment by DailyMail.com.
Queens couple Sean Plunkett, left, and Nicole Hoeffrle, right, also had their wedding bookings canceled at the last minute by The Crossroads Hotel
Migrants line up to seek asylum at a makeshift migrant camp in El Paso on May 11, 2023
Security forces watched as migrants attempted to enter the US after crossing the Rio Grande River, in Matamoros, Mexico, prior to the end of Title 42
Hours before Title 42 was lifted Thursday, hundreds of migrants lined up on US soil in Yuma to begin the asylum application process
The sharp increase in the number of border crossings has been fueled by the expiration of the Title 42 immigration policy.
The pandemic-era order allowed authorities to use a public health law to quickly deport migrants crossing the border, denying them the right to seek asylum.
The US has rejected migrants more than 2.8 million times under the order, but it came to an end at midnight eastern time on Thursday.
A record number of migrants immediately poured across the border, but reports indicate that the flow has slowed down in the days since.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained up to 28,000 migrants at its facilities when the order expired, well beyond its declared capacity and in what appeared to be a record, two federal officials who asked for anonymity and the Border Protection Union said. Patrol.
As the fallout from the expiration of the warrant continues, DailyMail.com obtained new photos showing dozens of migrants being apprehended by Border Patrol as they illegally enter the US.
Border crossings exceeded 10,000 a day several times in the past week, and customs and border security are struggling to keep a handle on the rush to handle the swarm of arrivals.