Motel 6, Which Gave Guest Data to ICE Agents, Will Pay $12 Million

[DirtEdonE]

From this morning's NY Times Business section:

Motel 6, Which Gave Guest Data to ICE Agents, Will Pay $12 Million

By Tiffany Hsu

April 5, 2019

"Every day for over two and a half years, and sometimes twice a day, immigration agents arrived at several Motel 6 locations in Washington State and, without warrants, were able to obtain the names, birth dates, identification data, room assignments and license plate numbers of every guest.

The agents, with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, would sometimes circle the names of guests that sounded Latino before targeting them for questioning, detainment and deportation, according to a settlement agreement announced this week by the state’s attorney general, Bob Ferguson.

Over the period in question, employees at seven motels gave information related to 80,000 guests to the agents, violating the company’s privacy policy, Mr. Ferguson’s office said on Thursday. To resolve a lawsuit the office filed against Motel 6 last year, the chain agreed to pay $12 million, much of it in damages to guests who were affected.

Motel 6, which is owned by the private equity firm Blackstone Group and has 1,400 locations in North America, also signed a legally binding commitment to stop volunteering guest information absent a warrant anywhere in the United States."

Blackstone Group

"Blackstone was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions boutique by Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman Brothers. Since then, Blackstone has become the world's largest private equity investment firm."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-china-whisperer-how-billionaire-stephen-schwarzman-has-sought-to-keep-the-president-close-to-beijing/2018/03/11/67e369a8-0c2f-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0f728d444751

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-26/the-kushners-the-saudis-and-blackstone-behind-the-recent-deals

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/business/dealbook/blackstone-saudi-arabia-investments-infrastructure.html

[dewsgirl]

1. Good. I remember the tweets when this was happening

hoping to God they would pay in some way. I only wish it was more.

[DirtEdonE]

2. I wish it was more too

If they were doing it in Washington State they were probably doing it elsewhere and if Motel 6 was doing it ICE likely had other hotel/motel chains doing it too.

My wife and I were walking our dog yesterday and there was a landscaper working near the sidewalk. I waved and said hello because I just automatically smile and say hello to people. He silently smiled and nodded. He was Latino. My wife said he looked a little worried. Like I was going to strike up a conversation then question him. Maybe she picked up on something I missed. She's more sensitive to such signals than I am out of necessity.

This is the nation we have made. America the beautiful.

"The country is full, so turn around."

[dewsgirl]

3. I know exactly what you mean and the look some of them

have. There is an Iraqi man that owns the gas station near my house, for the first probably six months he barely spoke, now we converse often, he is afraid for his family. Despite doing everything right, he is terrified. It breaks my heart for him.

[DirtEdonE]

4. I met an Egyptian guy at the gas station this winter

We were expecting a big snow storm so I stopped to fill up. I asked if he heard about the storm. He said he did but he'd never seen snow except for television. It was his third day here in America.

I reached out and shook his hand, wished him well and welcomed him to America. I thought the poor guy was going to break down in tears.

I'm so ashamed of what we have done and what we continue to allow to be done in our name as a nation.