DoJ demands New York migrant shelter hotel give up names of people living there

Federal prosecutors have sent a criminal subpoena to a Manhattan hotel housing undocumented immigrants through a New York City program providing shelter to asylum seekers, according to a copy of the filing obtained by the Guardian.

The subpoena issued on Wednesday asks the hotel to provide “a list of full names of aliens currently residing” at the site as well as “any corresponding identifying information”, including dates of birth, nationality and identification numbers. The subpoena also asks the hotel to give evidence about “an alleged violation” of federal immigration law.

A source shared the document on the condition that the Guardian not share the name of their employer because the hotel is now part of a federal criminal investigation.

The subpoena marks the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants. New York City is currently seeing a flurry of protests and demonstrations in defense of Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, who is being targeted by the administration for deportation over his participation in pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations.

The federal subpoena, sent to the hotel Wednesday by prosecutors for the southern district of New York, also appears to seek information about New York City government officials. It asks the hotel to provide the names of “entities and/or individuals that are responsible for the funding” of the “illegal immigrant/migrant shelter programs”.

Officials for the mayor, Eric Adams, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.

Two of the prosecutors named in the subpoena – Kevin Grossinger, assistant United States attorney, and Scott Laragy with the criminal division of the Department of Justice – declined to comment on the subpoena.

Nicholas Biase, chief of public affairs for the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York, did not immediately respond to a request for comment as of publication.

In a phone call, Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, criticized the subpoena, calling it an example of the Trump administration “weaponizing” the Department of Justice against New York City residents: “Instead of wasting government time and resources, we should be thinking of how we improve the daily lives of all the people who call this country home.”

Since 2022, New York City’s municipal government has contracted with numerous hotels, including several prominent ones in midtown Manhattan, to help shelter an influx of immigrants seeking asylum. The shelters quickly became the sites of local political backlash and rightwing furor nationally.

In February, Adams announced he would close an immigrant intake center at one of those sites, the Roosevelt Hotel. The decision came just weeks after Trump justice officials began moving to drop corruption charges against the mayor, a move that sparked numerous Department of Justice resignations.

Adams has denied the allegations against him.

Trump has been in office for less than two months, but has been active in enforcing his administration’s promised crackdown on immigration in the US. According to detention management data from the Department of Homeland Security, February 2025 saw more arrests than in any month in the last seven years. US immigration detention is also filled to capacity, at 47,600 detainees, a senior US Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said on a call with reporters on Wednesday, Reuters reported.