Illegal Immigrants Are Not Staying in US Hotels
The Claim
Illegal Immigrants arriving in the U.S. are being housed in free hotels.
News posted on
Emerging story
On February 8th, Fox News Anchor Laura Ingraham stated the following: “You may not have stayed in a hotel in the past year, but illegals arriving since Biden’s inauguration, they get to stay free of charge.” The video was shared more than 20,000 times on Facebook and received more than 3,000 comments.
Some even called for Biden’s impeachment, with one user claiming he’d spent “weather funds” on immigrants, while American citizens suffered.
Another user called for action in building Trump’s wall, requesting that we “stop the invasion.”
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar finds this claim to be misleading. Illegal immigrants are not being placed in U.S. hotels. These individuals are migrants who have come to the U.S. to seek asylum. According to US and international law, crossing an international border for asylum is not illegal and an asylum seeker’s case must be heard.
Migrants have been staying in hotels as part of a temporary quarantine period to protect those already within the country from COVID-19. Groups such as the Jewish Family Service (JFS) San Diego are sponsoring and supporting these migrants with housing, education, and employment.
Eitan Peled, a representative from JFS, told WREG Memphis, “Every one of these migrants is asserting their legal right to seek international protection in the United States.”
He further stated that these migrants have ”...passed a ‘credible fear’ interview conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, and are now awaiting their asylum cases in the US.”
Given the information presented, it’s clear that asylum seekers are legal migrants, not “illegals,” making the original claim misleading.
