The corner of East 45th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue in New York City was empty Thursday morning, free of the migrants who had been sleeping outside for days.
Dozens of migrants from various South American and African countries had lined the street in front of the Roosevelt Hotel in recent days, sleeping on cardboard boxes awaiting processing.
They told DailyMail.com how desperate they were to move in as communication from city officials remained sparse.
Videos posted online showed Mayor Eric Adams reviewing the scene late Wednesday night, as he was harassed by an irate New Yorker demanding his resignation over the ongoing migrant crisis.
There was no trace of the men on Thursday, leaving many wondering where they had gone after Adams suggested sheltering the hundreds of migrants who continue to flood the streets of New York City in tents in Central Park.
Only a small group of migrants remained behind and were taken away in city buses or Ubers.
Migrants who slept for days outside the Roosevelt Hotel were taken off the curb Thursday morning
City workers and NYPD officers who were on the scene reported it New York daily news the migrants were moved around 8am on Thursday to be processed after the space opened.
A guard also said some were quickly processed and provided with beds in city shelters.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the mayor’s office for comment.
New York is bound by a decades-old decree of consent in a class action lawsuit to provide shelter for the homeless.
As a result, the Roosevelt Hotel and other refugee hubs have become – within walking distance of Times Square, the World Trade Center memorial, and the Empire State Building.
Over the weekend, the migrants were given little red tickets with numbers on them — and occasionally hotel workers would come out to call numbers to let people into the air-conditioned lobby.
Others, desperately clamoring closer to get in, had to wait outside in the New York City heat.
They had been given papers telling them to report to the Roosevelt Hotel, which is full of housing migrant families.
In a statement on Monday, Eric Adams said: ‘Children and families are still given priority and find a bed every night.
“While at least last night we offered all adults a temporary place to wait outside the sidewalks, some may have chosen to sleep outside.
“And, in fairness, New Yorkers may continue to see that more and more as hundreds of asylum seekers continue to arrive every day.”
Only a handful of migrants remained in front of the Roosevelt Hotel on Thursday and were taken away on city buses
A security guard watched passersby outside the Roosevelt Hotel on Thursday
The Roosevelt Hotel serves as a processing center and shelters migrant families
Here a worker can be seen cleaning the corner of East 45th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue after the migrants disappeared
City workers and NYPD officers who were on the scene told the New York Daily News that the migrants were moved around 8 a.m. Thursday.
A guard also said some were quickly processed and provided with beds in city shelters
But images of migrant men huddled outside in the heat prompted the Legal Aid Association and the Coalition for the Homeless to call for the mayor.
They said in a statement: “There is no question that the city has a legal obligation to find suitable placement in a timely manner for anyone in need of shelter.
“Denying newcomers placement and forcing people to languish on local streets is cruel and violates a range of court orders and local laws.”
The organization threatened to sue if something is not done to help the people on the street.
A migrant shared his referral form with DailyMail.com and told him to go to the Roosevelt Hotel for refuge
On Wednesday, the migrants left outside in the heat to collect food brought by a local volunteer
Some volunteers handed the migrants outside the hotel with charged mobile phones
The images of migrant men huddled outside in the heat prompted the Legal Aid and the Homeless Coalition to call the mayor
The migrant crisis has been declared a state of emergency in New York. The National Guard is seen here bringing water to the Roosevelt Hotel on Thursday
The following day, it was revealed that city officials were considering housing migrants in tents in Central Park as the migrant crisis became a state of emergency in New York.
The proposed migrant plan, first reported by the Gothamist, also envisions 3,000 other New York sites, including tourist public green spaces, as places to erect emergency housing for the crushing influx of migrants.
In response to the Gothamist report, Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said, “Everything is on the table.”
Williams-Isom said she believes people will come from other US cities like Denver and Chicago when the doors close there. By comparison, New York City has opened a total of 197 locations across the city to help with the problem.
In the last week of July, 2,300 migrants arrived in the city to apply for asylum. The Roosevelt Hotel has about 1,000 rooms available for migrants.
New York City cannot bear the weight of a national problem alone. It’s time for the rest of the country to act,” Williams-Isom warned on Wednesday.
She reiterated that New York is facing the biggest problem of a nationwide problem. There are currently 15 different languages spoken outside the Roosevelt Hotel – indicative of how far-reaching the migrant crisis has become.
This isn’t the Adams administration’s migration crisis plan A or even plan B — it’s “plan F,” Williams-Isom said, emphasizing how much the city has already done.
The mayor is said to be considering a plan to house migrants in tents in Central Park. Pictured are tents set up in the park in May 2020 to treat COVID patients
The city says more than 93,000 asylum seekers have passed through the intake system since April 2022.
Some of the thousands of migrants arriving in NYC have been brought in by buses from Florida and Texas as the states’ conservative governments believe progressive cities should share the burden.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has sent about 9,700 asylum seekers to New York City, according to Politico.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has flown about 85 migrants to Massachusetts and California.
Adams responded by sending migrants to red states – some were even sent to South America and China.
The Democrat spent about $50,000 of the city’s money to send 114 migrant households elsewhere — with 28 families sent to Florida with 14 to Texas and a few to Colombia and a family to China after being allowed to choose their destination.
Mayor Eric Adams has called the immigration crisis a “disaster” and is asking for help from the federal government. He is pictured on Monday
Migrants outside the hotel had to sleep on cardboard boxes for days
He also opened 174 emergency shelters and shelters while asking the federal government for help.
The mayor had said, “New York City is still receiving thousands of asylum seekers each week, and we’ve done our best and led the nation, but this national crisis mustn’t fall on the cities alone.” We need a national solution here.’
But last month, the federal government pledged $104.6 million to help New York City accommodate the migrants.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the money from FEMA would be used for “the care and assistance of asylum seekers” and toward the Shelter Services program of the United States. city would be sent.
Another $138.4 million was previously given to New York City to support the migrant influx.