Federal authorities have started a criminal investigation into how New York City hotels involved in sheltering migrants are being funded and managed, based on a subpoena delivered to a hotel in Manhattan.
On Wednesday, federal prosecutors issued a subpoena to the Hotel Chandler located in Midtown Manhattan. They requested details tied to the city’s migrant shelter system, including a full list of the individuals identified as foreign nationals currently staying at the hotel.
The information requested included nationalities, birth dates, and identification numbers. The document also demanded both witness testimony and documentation from the hotel concerning what it described as a possible breach of federal immigration law.
Prosecutors asked for records identifying the people and organizations behind the funding and daily operations of the shelter initiative for migrants. They also sought to examine any contracts or agreements connected to the effort.
Uncertainty Around the Hotel’s Role
There was no clear explanation as to why Hotel Chandler was chosen, since it had already been turned into a homeless shelter years earlier and was not currently operating as a facility for migrants.
The investigation seems to be partially directed at understanding how hotels are being used and funded as part of the city’s shelter efforts. However, by Wednesday, the full scope of the inquiry remained unclear. It was also not confirmed whether other hotels had received similar subpoenas.
A grand jury subpoena came from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. When asked for details, spokesman Nicholas Biase referred all questions to the Department of Justice in Washington. But officials there refused to share further information.
A department spokesman said only that this was part of “an ongoing criminal investigation” and refused to outline the investigation’s direction or extent.
As of Wednesday, New York City officials had not been contacted through any formal subpoena, according to a government source familiar with the situation. The source was not authorized to speak on the record and requested anonymity due to the topic’s sensitivity.
Mayor Eric Adams’ spokeswoman, Liz Garcia, responded by saying that the city would not be issuing any public statement related to the federal investigation.
Wider Political Tensions and Financial Disputes
The Guardian was the first to report on Wednesday that a subpoena had been delivered to a Manhattan hotel, although the publication did not mention the hotel by name.
The shelters where migrants are currently staying have become a major issue for the Trump administration, which has frequently targeted New York City’s status as the largest “sanctuary” jurisdiction in the United States. Under sanctuary policies, city authorities limit how much they cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
Since the start of 2022, the city has been overwhelmed by over 230,000 migrants seeking housing. In response, the city signed agreements worth millions of dollars with more than 100 different hotels. These hotels were repurposed as temporary shelters.
Some Republican lawmakers have sharply criticized this plan, saying that it wastes public funds meant for taxpayers. Just last month, the Trump administration unexpectedly withdrew $80 million from city bank accounts.
That money had originally been meant to help reimburse the city for hotel-related expenses in the migrant housing program.
As part of that move, the federal government singled out the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown, where city officials had set up their main intake center for processing new migrant arrivals. Trump administration officials described the hotel as a hangout spot for gang members with ties to migrant groups.
Soon after this claim surfaced, New York City leaders shared plans to close down the Roosevelt Hotel before the end of June. They explained that a big drop in new migrant arrivals made it no longer necessary to keep the hotel running.
