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Over the weekend, DOGE co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy drew attention to the barely known fact that New York City is effectively paying the Pakistani government to house criminal aliens.
This has been true since the summer of 2023 when Pakistani Minister of Railways and Aviation Khawaja Saad Rafique announced that the Pakistani government would be leasing the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan to the administration of NYC Mayor Eric Adams.
“The lease agreement is expected to generate revenues to the tune of around USD 220 million for the Pakistan government,” he said, as reported by The Economic Times. “A contract was signed for 1,250 rooms. The hotel will be returned to the government of Pakistan once the three-year term lease expires.”
Listen below if you can understand Hindi:
Khawaja Saad Rafique Unbelievable Statement on Roosevelt Hotel Issue | | PYTHS MEDIA GROUP Subscribe for more Breaking News: https://t.co/2k1kdIJS6S @pythsgroup9753 Twitter: (PYTHS MEDIA GROUP)@SyedZai91811933Facebook: https://t.co/kF9eydXRAg: https://t.co/CHGnEsS8QC.group7 pic.twitter.com/uEgboneEHq
— (NEWS WORLD OFFICIAL) (@SyedZai91811933) June 5, 2023
The building is owned by the state-run Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), which reportedly initially leased the building in the 1970s but eventually purchased it a couple of decades later.
According to First Post, the plan outlined last year was to lease all 1,025 rooms of the Roosevelt Hotel for $210 per night per room, meaning $215,250 in daily revenue, for at least a year, if not longer.
For Pakistan, this agreement is a big deal.
“For Pakistan, the Roosevelt deal is part of broader efforts to stabilize its economy,” First Post notes. “The hotel’s rental agreement aligns with a $1.1 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), aimed at helping Pakistan avoid a debt default.”
“The $220 million revenue generated from the hotel lease offers a much-needed financial lifeline for PIA and the nation’s struggling aviation sector,” the reporting continues.
But for Americans like Ramaswamy, the agreement makes zero sense:
A taxpayer-funded hotel for illegal migrants is owned by the Pakistani government which means NYC taxpayers are effectively paying a foreign government to house illegals in our own country. This is nuts. https://t.co/Oy4Z9qoX45
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 1, 2024
“A taxpayer-funded hotel for illegal migrants is owned by the Pakistani government which means NYC taxpayers are effectively paying a foreign government to house illegals in our own country,” he tweeted over the weekend. “This is nuts.”
Ramaswamy’s followers on Twitter/X agreed.
Look:
Pakistan First?
How about America first.
— Hugo Vale (@HugoVale_) December 1, 2024
It’s almost as if this entire housing situation for future illegals was planned to funnel money to Pakistan. Weird.
— Leigh10021 (@tarheel_texas) December 1, 2024
And Hurricane Helene victims are without homes, heat, clothing, … what an absolute disgrace. So much done behind closed doors. Money laundering and payoffs. What do Americans get in all of this wheelin’ and dealin’?
— lovin’ life (@LovinRiftss) December 1, 2024
This is absolutely unbelievable. The fact that the government has been doing this in secret all this time is unforgivable. The Democrat party cannot be trusted. They intentionally wasted our money on people who aren’t even citizens!
— TheModernFederalist (@ModernFed) December 1, 2024
Wow !!!
illegal immigrant staying in a posh 5-star hotel while ordinary US citizens are struggling to pay basic rent.The worst part is that money goes to a foreign country rather than an indigenous one.
— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) December 1, 2024
Even nuttier still is how the hotel has since become a hotbed of illegal activity, much of it attributable to the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua.
Speaking on local station WNYW two months ago, NYPD Detective Bureau Assistant Chief Jason Savino warned that the gang was especially active in the Times Square area, particularly around the Roosevelt Hotel.
Making matters worse, the gang members were facing “no repercussions” for their bad behavior.
“Right now, what we have I like to call a perfect storm of sorts, where we have individuals — tremendously brazen, absolutely ruthless individuals — that have committed a multitude of crimes with basically no repercussions,” Savino explained.
As an example, he pointed to a robbery crew of 20 individuals responsible for upwards of 50 robberies.
“Out of those 20 individuals, every single one of them is on the streets today,” he said.
Why? Because of the perps’ ages and because of bail reform, Savino said.
“We’re talking about a group that works off of bets, you know, where they’ll stand on a corner and say, hey, I bet you won’t rob that individual,” he said. “If you don’t, you have to lick the transit floor or have to jump towards the train tracks.”
“Things like that sort of repercussion, that sort of empowerment from not being punished — criminality without consequence — that empowerment enables them to really just have the gall to commit these crimes,” he added.
Violent Venezuelan gang ‘empowered’ and spreading in U.S.; 20 members WALK after NYC crime spree https://t.co/i5QVA5u8qu
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) October 17, 2024
The only good news is that immigration hardliner President-elect Donald Trump’s election has by itself already convinced some criminal aliens at the Roosevelt Hotel to take a hike.
“I am a scared man,” a male criminal alien told the Daily Mail after Election Day, adding that he was planning to voluntarily head back to Costa Rice. “I don’t want them to grab me and hold me in some immigration jail for who knows how long.”
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