[BreachExchange] Motel 6 To Pay $12 Million After Improperly Giving Guest Lists To ICE

[Destry Winant]

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/05/710137783/motel-6-to-pay-12-million-after-improperly-giving-guest-lists-to-ice

The hotel chain Motel 6 has agreed to pay $12 million to settle a
lawsuit filed by the state of Washington after several locations gave
information on thousands of guests to Immigration and Customs
Enforcement without warrants.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Thursday that
Motel 6 shared the information of about 80,000 guests in the state
from 2015 to 2017.

That led to targeted investigations of guests with Latino-sounding
names, according to Ferguson. He said many guests faced questioning
from ICE, detainment or deportation as a result of the disclosures.

It's the second settlement over the company's practice in recent months.

Motel 6 also has signed a legally binding commitment to no longer
share guest information without a warrant at any of its locations
nationwide, a practice the chain says it has already ended.

"Motel 6's actions tore families apart and violated the privacy rights
of tens of thousands of Washingtonians," Ferguson said in a statement.
"Our resolution holds Motel 6 accountable for illegally handing over
guests' private information without a warrant."

The company told NPR in an emailed statement that, as part of the
agreement, it would "continue to enforce its guest privacy policy,
which prohibits the sharing of guest information except in cases where
a judicially enforceable warrant or subpoena is present, or local law
requires this information."

"The company has also implemented a system of additional controls to
ensure corporate oversight and compliance in cases where law
enforcement requests are made."

The Phoenix New Times first uncovered the practice in September 2017
when reporter Antonia Farzan investigated two Motel 6 locations in
Phoenix.

"We got a tip that this was happening, started talking to local
immigration attorneys and definitely kept hearing from people that
this was a trend," Farzan told NPR's Ari Shapiro at the time. "They
didn't really know what was behind it but that they kept seeing people
get picked up at Motel 6."

Following initial media reports, Motel 6 released a statement saying
that the practice had been discontinued and that it would issue a
directive to each of its locations to clarify "that they are
prohibited from voluntarily providing daily guest lists to ICE." The
hotel said at the time that the practice was implemented "at the local
level without the knowledge of senior management."

Washington state sued the company a few months later, alleging
employees at seven locations in the Puget Sound region violated state
consumer-protection law when they also released guest information.

Ferguson said at the time that the hotels would turn over entire guest
lists to authorities.

"According to our interviews with employees at Motel 6," he told NPR's
Scott Simon, "ICE agents would circle the names that looked
Latino-sounding and ran those names through a database and then would
detain individuals based on those random checks."

The statement from Ferguson about Thursday's settlement detailed
several cases of guests whose names were provided to ICE, including
one Seattle man who stayed at a Motel 6 near Sea-Tac for one night,
wrapping Christmas presents for his children.

"ICE agents approached him in the hotel's parking lot, detained him
and deported him some days later," the statement reads. "The man was
the sole provider for the household, and his wife is currently
struggling to support their toddler and four other children."

Motel 6 has agreed to also train its employees not to release guest
information improperly and maintain a 24-hour hotline to help
employees when they receive requests for information. The company will
also be required to create a tool on its website for guests to report
possible violations.

The state says more than $10 million of the settlement fund will be
paid out to affected guests — including those who did not have any
contact with ICE after their information was disclosed.

In November, Motel 6 settled a separate lawsuit filed in Arizona by
the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. That lawsuit
identified eight Latino plaintiffs who were detained, including one
who was deported.