Why is NYC shutting down its Randall's Island migrant shelter after just 1 month?


New York City officials plan to shutter the Randall's Island tent shelter built to mitigate a surprise influx of over 23,000 relocated migrants after recent changes to the Biden administration's immigration policies curtailed the overall number of incoming arrivals, The New York Times reports.
Many of the migrants were Venezuelans that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had bused to New York in protest of President Biden's border policies. In October, New York City Mayor Eric Adams estimated the city would spend up to $1 billion to lessen the strain the unprecedented arrivals had put on its shelter system.
The tent shelter, which was built to house 500 single adult men, officially opened last month. As of last week, however, it remained largely unused, the Times reports. And by the time construction had finished, the number of migrants arriving in the city dropped dramatically compared to the beginning of the crisis, ostensibly because the Biden administration had begun sending new arrivals back to Mexico.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Officials said last week that only 170 people were living in the shelter, some of which were West African migrants. Isa Isadoup, one of the tent's recent occupants, praised the shelter's amenities, which include phones for international calls, televisions, and areas to play video games, per the Times. Isadoup said the tent was spacious and clean compared to the overcrowded apartment he left behind.
On Thursday, the city said tent occupants would be provided with "transportation to the Watson Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, whose 600 rooms would now be used to house asylum seekers," the Times summarizes.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Theara Coleman has worked as a staff writer at The Week since September 2022. She frequently writes about technology, education, literature and general news. She was previously a contributing writer and assistant editor at Honeysuckle Magazine, where she covered racial politics and cannabis industry news.
-
Scattered Spider: who are the hackers linked to M&S and Co-op cyberattacks?
The Explainer 'Decentralised and adaptive', its mainly English-speaking members operate like an 'organised criminal network'
-
The best birdwatching spots in the UK
The Week Recommends Grab your binoculars to spot puffins, oystercatchers and chiffchaffs
-
'Making memories': the scourge of modern parenting?
In The Spotlight Meghan Markle sends her children emails of each day's 'moments' but is constant 'memory-making' just another burden for parents to bear?
-
Deportations ensnare migrant families, U.S. citizens
Feature Trump's deportation crackdown is sweeping up more than just immigrants as ICE targets citizens, judges and nursing mothers
-
Trump is not sure he must follow the Constitution
speed read When asked about due process for migrants in a TV interview, President Trump said he didn't know whether he had to uphold the Fifth Amendment
-
Trump judge bars deportations under 1798 law
speed read A Trump appointee has ruled that the president's use of a wartime act for deportations is illegal
-
Trump ousts Waltz as NSA, taps him for UN role
speed read President Donald Trump removed Mike Waltz as national security adviser and nominated him as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations
-
Trump blames Biden for tariffs-linked contraction
speed read The US economy shrank 0.3% in the first three months of 2025, the Commerce Department reported
-
'It is not enough to simply defend the status quo'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Trump says he could bring back Ábgego García but won't
Speed Read At a rally to mark his 100th day in office, the president doubled down on his unpopular immigration and economic policies
-
'Incarceration profoundly affects families and communities'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day