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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

No.

While a few upscale hotels such as the Roosevelt have been converted to shelter migrants, the majority are housed in more affordable establishments, and none in five-star hotels.

Eric Trump said in a speech at the Republican National Convention, “illegal immigrants are housed in the most expensive hotels in New York,” but Sean Hennessey, a hotel industry adviser, told the New York Times it is primarily two-star hotels that are housing undocumented migrants.

New York City entered into a contract of up to $980 million with a hotel trade group to pay hotels that decide to shelter migrants under its “Sancturary Hotel Program.”

Most of those hotels were deep in debt, facing foreclosure or had received poor reviews from guests. About half were brand names including Courtyard, Holiday Inn Express, SpringHill Suites and Super 8.

The city contract requires hotels hosting migrants to pick up trash, do housekeeping every other day and provide fresh towels.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

New York Times: Why N.Y.C. Hotel Rooms Are So Expensive Right Now

Bloomberg: NYC Pays Over $300 a Night for Budget Hotel Rooms for Migrants

New York Times: Inside the Manhattan Hotel That Is the New Ellis Island

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Ava Menkes joined Wisconsin Watch as a statehouse reporting intern in June 2024. She is currently a rising junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying journalism and political science. Ava works as the managing editor at UW-Madison’s student newspaper The Daily Cardinal and previously served as the state news editor, covering politics, health care and education. She is interested in reporting on elections, rural issues and cultural communities.