Posted on May 18, 2023

Hotel Cancels NY Wedding Guest Rooms to Accommodate Migrants

WCBS, May 15, 2023

An engaged couple who reserved dozens of rooms for their wedding guests in an Upstate New York hotel now have to find another venue with less than two weeks until the Big Day.

Sean Plunkett, the groom-to-be, and his fiancé, Nicole Hoeffrle, of Maspeth, Queens reserved a block of 37 rooms at the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh months ago.

The hotel suddenly canceled the deal last week in order to accommodate the asylum seekers New York City Mayor Eric Adams relocated.

“…what we feel right now is, we feel very cast aside,” Plunkett said.

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But Plunkett and Hoeffrle aren’t the only people who’ve been cast aside by the hotel.

Last Wednesday, Adams sent roughly two dozen migrants on a bus to a hotel in the upstate town of Newburgh, overriding fierce backlash from local leaders.

At least one other engaged couple, and several large groups, are not forced to look for new hotels now that asylum seekers are using it.

An Orange County Christian ministry is being forced to move its Sunday services since it no longer has access to the hotel.

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New York City has also faced pushback in its early efforts to escort migrants out of the city. In Rockland County, local officials successfully secured a temporary restraining order banning the city from sending migrants to a hotel.

After two dozen migrants arrived in a Newburgh hotel on Thursday, Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus, a Republican, blamed Adams for a “disorganized disaster,” vowing to secure his own restraining order.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said the city faced an “untenable situation.” But she said she also understood the stress faced by county executives and their decision to lash out at the buses.

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