A New York hotel that became a symbol of hope for refugees and asylum seekers arriving in the city has closed following the Trump administration’s crackdown on migrants.

The Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan, once at the heart of New York’s response to migrant arrivals, is laying off nearly all of its staff as the city moves to end its use as a shelter and intake centre.

The Roosevelt was dubbed “the new Ellis Island” because it served as a centralised intake centre for many of the more than 230,000 migrants who arrived in the city between summer 2022 and 2024.

It stopped operating as a luxury hotel in late 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As increasing numbers of migrants arrived in New York by bus from Texas and other border states, the city began paying the Roosevelt roughly $US200 a night for each of its 1,022 rooms, or about $US75 million a year.

Early this year, the number of migrants arriving each week fell to just 350 from a peak of roughly 4,000.

At one point in late 2023, New York was sheltering 69,000 migrants, in addition to tens of thousands of other homeless people.

The number of migrants has fallen to 43,578 recently, leading New York Mayor Eric Adams to announce plans to close migrant shelters.

The Stewart Hotel, another New York hotel that operated as a migrant facility, is also closing. It plans to lay off all 99 of its employees.

The historic Roosevelt Hotel has been home to a long list of celebrities over its 100–year history, including Charlie Chaplin, H. G. Wells, Clark Gable, Max Baer, Carole Lombard, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift and Errol Flynn.

The hotel has appeared in several films and TV shows. A scene from the 1987 drama film ‘Wall Street’ was shot inside the ballroom. The films ‘Boiler Room’, ‘Monday Night Mayhem’, ‘Hoax’, ‘1408’, ‘Hanky Panky’, ‘French Connection’, and ‘Quiz Show’, as well as ‘Maid in Manhattan’, were also partially filmed in the hotel. Also, the majority of the 2012 film ‘Man on a Ledge’ was shot on Roosevelt’s roof; a replica of a hotel room had to be hoisted to the roof during filming.

It is located at 45 East 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan neighbourhood. It occupies an entire city block bounded by Madison Avenue to the west, 46th Street to the north, Vanderbilt Avenue to the east, and 45th Street to the south.