Advocates accuse New York City of using migrants as ‘props’ in bid for federal money

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — For days now, newly arrived migrants have been waiting outside New York City’s Roosevelt Hotel, hoping for a bed in an overly crowded shelter system. And for weeks, Mayor Eric Adams has said the city is out of room. City officials and activists alike have called the bleak conditions heartbreaking as busloads of migrants keep coming. Some critics charge that the scene outside the hotel is part of the city’s campaign to pressure state and federal authorities to provide more money to handle the crisis — and to discourage more migrants from coming. But Adams says the city is doing all it can to open new shelters and deal with new migrants compassionately.