Despite President Trump's fixation on "securing" the southwest border during his presidential campaign, it's been cities like New York and Chicago that his administration has been targeting as ground zero in its campaign of intimidation and retaliation.
And while Trump has not been able (yet) to make good on his threats of mass deportations, he's done his best to sow chaos and fear. Last month, after Trump claimed that the City's sheltering of migrants was "a massive fraud," his administration stole $80 million in FEMA funds already sent to the City for housing new immigrants.
The Trump administration has now escalated its pressure campaign against the City. On Wednesday, several New York City hotels that have operated as homeless shelters, including for migrants, received federal subpoenas from the Department of Justice, demanding that they turn over lists of their residents. The Guardian first reported on Wednesday that an unnamed Manhattan hotel operating as a homeless shelter had received a criminal subpoena from the Southern District of New York.