(C) Wisconsin Watch
This story was originally published by Wisconsin Watch and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Inside the Manhattan Hotel That Is the New Ellis Island [1]
['Joseph Goldstein', 'Todd Heisler']
Date: 2023-09-21
Inside a once grand but long-faded hotel in midtown Manhattan, dozens of immigrants huddle together beneath large chandeliers as they wait hours to be processed. They give their information — where they’ve come from, and their ultimate destination — and they strip down for a medical examination. They rest and hold their children tight.
But at the Roosevelt Hotel, New York’s new Ellis Island, as one city official called it, there is no view of the Statue of Liberty, only the Men’s Wearhouse across the street. And there is no giant American flag to greet immigrants, as there was in Ellis Island’s Great Hall. Instead there is a smiling portrait of Guy Lombardo, the once-famous bandleader who led the hotel’s house band, watching over everyone.
The Roosevelt — where Dewey conceded to Truman in 1948 — has become a symbol of the huge scale of the migrant crisis and a faltering government response.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/21/nyregion/roosevelt-hotel-migrant-crisis.html
Published and (C) by Wisconsin Watch
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-ND 4.0 Intl.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/wisconsinwatch/
