Dems demand ICE prohibit hotel screenings after Motel 6 raids

A pair of House Democrats on Friday urged the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to prohibit screenings of hotel guests to identify people suspected of entering the country illegally.

The request follows revelations that some Motel 6 locations had been providing information to the agency.

In a letter to Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan, Democratic Reps. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.) and Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) expressed alarm that two Phoenix-area Motel 6 locations had been giving guest lists to ICE, reportedly resulting in at least 20 arrests between February and August.

“We strongly condemn this practice and urge you to expressly forbid the random screening and harassment of hotel guests by your personnel in the future,” Gallego and Jayapal wrote.

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They further requested a “full accounting” from ICE about whether the agency’s leaders knew of the practice and if it has been used elsewhere across the country.

“If true, this clearly demonstrates a preference on the part of ICE’s leadership in Arizona for convenience and efficiency at the expense of due process or adherence to sensible enforcement priorities,” they wrote.

Motel 6 issued a statement on Twitter this week saying that the practice of providing guest lists to ICE was “implemented at the local level without the knowledge of senior management.”

The Phoenix New Times first reported about the ICE sting operations at the Motel 6 locations in predominantly Latino neighborhoods, which were sending guest lists to agents each morning.

According to the New Times, ICE agents performed “knock and talks” in which they would show up at the motels without a warrant and knock on doors asking permission to enter.

“We send a report every morning to ICE — all the names of everybody that comes in,” one front-desk clerk told the New Times. “Every morning at about 5 o’clock, we do the audit and we push a button and it sends it to ICE.”

Motel 6 said it has since instructed all of its more than 1,400 locations not to send guest lists to ICE.

“Protecting the privacy and security of our guests are core values of our company. Motel 6 apologizes for this incident and will continue to work to earn the trust and patronage of our millions of loyal guests,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.