Motel 6 won’t cooperate with ICE on immigration checks

The Motel 6 chain said it stopped cooperating with federal immigration officials months ago, responding to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by Washington state, which said thousands of guests’ information was illegally shared with deportation officers.

Washington Attorney General Robert W. Ferguson said Motel 6 had a standard practice of turning guest list information over to officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who would then peruse the list and decide if they were suspicious of any guests. He said officers appeared to be using “Latino-sounding names” to figure out who they were targeting.

More than 9,000 guests staying at six motels in Washington state had their information shared, Mr. Ferguson said in a complaint filed in King County Superior Court. But he said that violates the state’s Constitution, which requires agents to prove probable cause before their information can be released.

In response, the motel chain said it’s taken steps to stop the practice.

“In September, Motel 6 issued a directive 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),” the company said in a statement. “Motel 6 takes this matter very seriously, and we have and will continue to fully cooperate with the Office of the State Attorney General.”

For its part ICE said it wouldn’t discuss operations, and said since it wasn’t party in the case it didn’t have any further comment about the specific lawsuit.

But the agency did say hotels and motels are valid targets.

“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 agency said.