NYPD impounds 80 unlicensed migrant mopeds from outside Roosevelt and Watson Hotel shelters

The NYPD is cracking down on unlicensed mopeds being driven around New York City by illegal migrants.

The police department posted on X Monday that it had confiscated 80 such vehicles that had been parked outside the Roosevelt and Watson Hotels in Manhattan. The two hotels have been converted into migrant shelters and are known to have lines of mopeds parked outside. 

New Yorkers have long complained about the illegal migrants using the mopeds to zip around the city, with many migrants flouting the rules of the road by driving the opposite way down streets, along sidewalks and on bicycle lanes. 

Mopeds outside the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City on Aug. 14, 2023 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Many migrants use mopeds to make deliveries for food app companies since they cannot find other jobs without work permits. 

However, the vast majority seen outside the hotel shelters are unregistered with no license plates. Under New York law, all mopeds must be registered and insured, but unlicensed mopeds cannot be insured. Additionally, drivers are required to wear helmets. 

"Your complaints have been heard about the blight of illegal mopeds parked in front of the Roosevelt Hotel and Watson Hotel in Manhattan," the NYPD wrote on one of its pages on X.

"We teamed up with officers from @NYPDMTS (NYPD Midtown South) and @NYPDMTN NYPD Midtown North, along with @NYCSanitation (New York City Dept. of Sanitation) and removed 80 vehicles, helping to address the issue."

Migrants arrive at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital )

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"Because we’re immigrants, we don’t have many options," one migrant told Fox 5 after a similar sweep in September. "One of the easiest options is to grab a motorcycle and apply on Uber."

Food delivery work does not require a license, according to Fox 5.

However, New Yorkers say the bikes also spoil the neighborhood, with one Upper West Side resident describing them as a "canker sore" to Fox 5.

One Venezuelan migrant told the Daily Mail that he and other men living in the Roosevelt Hotel are making as much as $1,500 every two weeks by delivering food and other items. Many delivery apps require drivers to submit a license before being able to pick up deliveries, but the men told the publication they get around that by using apps designed for bicycle deliveries.

A nighttime shot of the NYPD confiscating mopeds outside the Watson Hotel. (NYPD)

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New York is currently housing around 69,000 illegal migrants, with more than 160,000 migrants arriving into the city since the middle of 2022, some of whom have been bused in by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed providing $2.4 billion of taxpayer money to New York City to handle the crisis. New York City Mayor Eric Adams says the crisis will cost the Big Apple at least $12 billion by the end of FY 2025.

In September, the Biden administration fast tracked work authorization and deportation protection for some 470,000 Venezuelan migrants.