NYC Pakistan-Owned Hotel Took $146M For Illegals But Owes $13M In Taxes

Authored by Luis Cornelio via HeadlineUSA,

The Pakistani government owes New York City taxpayers millions in unpaid taxes despite making nearly $150 million through the Roosevelt Hotel by housing illegal aliens. 

The Roosevelt Hotel, owned by Pakistani International Airlines, a quasi-state entity, has $13.6 million in overdue property taxes and nearly $1 million in unpaid water bills, according to the New York Post. 

The hotel became a hub for illegal aliens after then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams entered contracts allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to live on the premises. 

According to the Post, the Roosevelt Hotel processed more than 173,000 of the 232,000 illegal aliens in the city.  

Taxpayers paid a total of $146.6 million, or $202 per room each night, for roughly 2,600 illegal aliens each night from May 2023 through June 2025. 

Among those staying at the formerly luxury hotel was Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan gang member serving a life sentence without parole for the murder of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia. 

The unpaid property taxes stem from a payment agreement with the city’s Department of Finance in September 2023, which required the hotel to pay $573,361 on Jan. 2. But as noted by the Post, that half-a-million-dollar bill again went unpaid, as did the $3.9 million half-year installment. 

But New Yorkers expecting those bills to be paid could be out of luck. 

The hotel recently entered a deal with the federal government to redevelop the landmark property, which could allow the Pakistani government to avoid future taxes. 

According to the Post, the arrangement might trigger a federal tax exemption, as the U.S. Department of State often asks city governments to grant exemptions when foreign governments purchase U.S. properties. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance said the agency has not “received” such a request but warned that prior charges “must still be paid.”