quote:

SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that national hotel chain Motel 6 will pay $12 million to resolve his lawsuit against the company for voluntarily providing guest lists to agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a routine basis for over two years.

In addition, Motel 6 signed a legally binding commitment to no longer hand over guest information without a warrant or other lawful basis at all locations, and must adopt this policy nationwide. The company will provide training for its employees to ensure they do not release guests’ private information unlawfully. The Attorney General will monitor Motel 6’s policies and training for the next three years.

Many Motel 6 locations in Washington turned over the personal information of their guests to ICE on a daily basis without requiring a warrant. From 2015 to 2017, seven Washington locations shared the personal information of approximately 80,000 guests. Each time Motel 6 released a guest list, it included the private information of every guest at the hotel without their knowledge or consent, violating their expectation of privacy.

In addition to violating the privacy of tens of thousands of guests, Motel 6’s disclosures resulted in ICE’s targeted investigation of many guests with Latino-sounding names on or near the Motel 6 properties where they stayed. For some guests, Motel 6’s disclosures resulted in the loss of their homes and jobs and separation from their families.

“Motel 6’s actions tore families apart and violated the privacy rights of tens of thousands of Washingtonians,” said Ferguson. “Our resolution holds Motel 6 accountable for illegally handing over guests’ private information without a warrant. Any other business that tries to violate Washingtonians’ right to privacy can expect to hear from my office.”

quote:

Nov. 6, 2018

Motel 6 has agreed to pay up to $8.9 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that its employees provided the personal information of several Latino guests to federal immigration officials, leading to their detainment.

The class-action lawsuit, filed in January, encompasses the claims of eight hotel guests who said Motel 6 employees at two locations in Phoenix handed over private information to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials without a warrant. The lawsuit asserted that the two motels invaded guests’ privacy and discriminated against them on the basis of their race and national origin.

Last September, Motel 6 acknowledged that employees at some of its locations in Arizona regularly handed over information that led to its guests’ being detained or deported. This practice was revealed in a report in The Phoenix New Times, prompting an array of calls to boycott Motel 6, which is owned by G6 Hospitality, a Texas-based company.

After the initial reports, a spokeswoman for G6 Hospitality — which is controlled by Blackstone, the private-equity firm — said the practice was “implemented at the local level without the knowledge of senior management.”

Motel 6 then introduced a policy prohibiting its locations from sharing information about its guests with law enforcement officials unless the hotels are compelled to.

Of the $8.9 million that Motel 6 agreed to pay, up to $7.6 million would go to plaintiffs across the country, said Thomas A. Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the nonprofit that represents the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit. The rest of the money, $1.3 million, would go to the plaintiffs’ legal fees and to pay for the administration of the settlement.