The hotel chain Motel 6 illegally handed over information for thousands of guests to the federal immigration agency, a lawsuit from Washington state’s attorney general alleged Wednesday.
Motel 6 came under national scrutiny over its practices in September after the Phoenix New Times found out two Arizona locations sent guest lists to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency on a daily basis, which resulted in at least 20 arrests. At the time, the hotel said information was exchanged on “the local level without the knowledge of senior management.”
In its lawsuit, Washington state’s attorney general Bob Ferguson alleged that employees in at least six Motel 6 locations in the state — which were in the Puget Sound region and corporate owned — handed over guest lists to ICE agents who didn’t have a warrant to find undocumented immigrants.
“Motel 6 staff observed ICE identify guests of interest to ICE, including by circling guests with Latino-sounding names,” the lawsuit said. The ICE agency then used the names to check to see whether any of the guests were undocumented or in violation of civil immigration issues. At one Motel 6 in Everett, ICE agents “visited early in the morning or late at night and received a daily list of all guests staying at the location.”
ICE was able to arrest or detain at least six guests on or near a Motel 6 between 2015 and 2017. According to the lawsuit, Motel 6 employees also allegedly shared information including names of more than 9,150 guests in Washington state, birth dates, drivers’ license numbers, license-plate numbers, and room numbers to ICE agents over the two years.
The lawsuit argues that the motel employees’ actions violated state consumer protection law, and it is seeking $2,000 per violation for a total of about $18 million. Guest registry information is private through Washington’s Supreme Court, Ferguson said, which the motel chain violated each time it shared a guest’s information.
“Motel 6’s actions are disturbing and they are unlawful,” Ferguson said.
Motel 6 told the Associated Press in an emailed statement that the company had “issued a directive” back in September “to every one of our more than 1,400 locations, making it clear that they are prohibited from voluntarily providing daily guests lists to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”
“Motel 6 takes this matter very seriously, and we have and will continue to fully cooperate with the Office of the State Attorney General,” the statement continued.
The ICE agency told CNN that it would not comment on the lawsuit since it was not a defendant.
“Due to operational security, (ICE) does not typically disclose or discuss specific information related to the source of its enforcement leads,” ICE spokeswoman Danielle Bennett told CNN. “The agency’s immigration enforcement actions are targeted and lead driven, prioritizing individuals who pose a risk to our communities. It’s worth noting that hotels and motels have frequently been exploited by criminal organizations engaged in highly dangerous illegal enterprises, including human trafficking and human smuggling.”
The hotel chain admitted to investigators that six motels handed guest lists to ICE agents without warrants. Ferguson said two other motels didn’t release the number of guests involved, CNN reported, so it’s possible that more people are affected. Five corporate-owned Motel 6 hotels in the state allegedly didn’t release guest lists to the ICE agency. The attorney general’s office is still determining whether the other 15 Motel 6 hotel locations in the state turned over information.
When the Phoenix New Times reported the startling revelations in September, Motel 6 tweeted at the time that the policy was “implemented at the local level without the knowledge of senior management. When we became aware of it last week, it was discontinued.”
“It was not isolated to two motels in Phoenix, not by a long shot. The company’s actions were methodical. They trained their new employees on how to do this,” Ferguson said. “We’re going to find out who at Motel 6 knew what, and when they knew it.”