MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) -- PIX11 News got an inside look at New York City's effort to handle the migrant crisis.
The Roosevelt Hotel has for the last year been the beating heart of the city's multibillion-dollar response to the migrant crisis. But what happens inside, including the services offered to migrants, often has people passing on the streets outside guessing.
On Tuesday, Dr. Ted Long led PIX11 News into the once-luxury hotel, up the staircase, past the National Guard, and into the grand lobby.
The space, which in its heyday routinely hosted presidents and even the NFL draft before shuttering, has been reborn as a migrant arrival center.
Inside the modern-day Ellis Island -- the first stop is a basic registration process.
"You have checked in, you show us your Customs and Border Patrol paperwork, we have offered you food for your kids, for your family members, and now we are going to do medical intake," Long explained.
Long said some of the 130,000 who have passed through there arrive in dire straits.
"We've seen women arrive in active labor," Long said. "We saw a boy have a seizure at our feet because ICE took his medication away at the border."
After they are stabilized, every migrant meets with the caseworker -- an effort the city has stepped up since September of last year, when it announced 30-day shelter notices.
Since then, Long said his team has made around 120,000 casework contacts. He also said his teams have gotten more and more efficient over time, saving the city money and the migrants time in shelter.
These days, one in four migrants do not even stay with the city -- thanks to help immediately reconnecting with a friend or family member.
"We can effectively help people," Long said. "If we get to know you, give you things like medical care up front, take care of your kids, treat you compassionately, it helps us to be more effective."
For those in need of temporary shelter, the casework continues -- with regular check-ins to see how the search for a job is going or if anyone needs assistance with asylum paperwork. New York City has helped file paperwork for about 44,000 asylum seekers, others seeking Temporary Protected Status or work visas.
Berny Garcia-Pinto, the exit planning lead, said the casework is often about more than offering resources. He personally helped a man struggling to fund work develop a resume a few weeks back.
"Within 24 hours, he had two jobs he was interested in and was ready to interview with," Garcia-Pinto said proudly.
However, outside the Roosevelt Hotel, there has been growing frustration about the billions the city is spending on the migrant response.
Mayor Eric Adams and others have made the case New York City has a moral and legal obligation under the "right-to-shelter" law. Long said he treats anyone entering his care with a doctor's mentality, but when asked about the criticism said:
"That's a great and fair question. At the end of the day, it's important to remember that we do not control who is sent to New York City. And I use my words carefully there. Just the other day I was outside of our arrival center here, and I saw a woman who was sitting on the ground crying, so we went up and talked to her. She was crying because she didn't know where she was -- she didn't even know she was in New York City."
New York City is currently caring for 64,000 migrants in shelter. Anywhere from 2,000-4,000 continue to arrive each week, mainly bused in by the state of Texas.
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