You Checked Into a Motel 6 for a Bed, Not a Line to an Immigration Agent
You drove into a parking lot in Everett, or pulled off I-5 somewhere between Federal Way and the SeaTac curve. You were tired. Maybe you were traveling for work, maybe you were visiting family, maybe you had just landed in Washington and needed somewhere to sleep for a few nights. You checked in. You paid for a room. You gave the desk your name, your date of birth, your license plate number, and your room key activated.
Then you walked away believing something every guest is entitled to believe: that what you handed to that front desk stayed between you and the people running the hotel. That the room you paid for was yours for the night. That your presence in that building was your private affair, the kind of business Washington State has always treated as nobody else’s concern.
We are writing this page for one purpose. If you were a guest at a Motel 6 in Washington State between February and September of 2017, and your personal information was shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents without your knowledge and without a warrant, the law gives you rights, and the law gives us the tools to enforce them. This page explains what happened, what the Washington State Attorney General proved in court, what your individual claim looks like, and what we do the moment you call.
The Washington Law That Protects You
Washington is not a state that leaves its residents to whatever federal law happens to provide. The Washington Consumer Protection Act (RCW 19.86) is one of the strongest consumer-protection statutes in the country, and it provides the legal framework for exactly this kind of claim. The Act declares that unfair or deceptive acts or practices in trade or commerce are unlawful, and it gives the Attorney General — and individual consumers — the power to bring suit.
The CPA allows recovery of actual damages, costs of suit, and reasonable attorney’s fees. Critically, Washington courts have discretion to award treble damages up to $25,000 per violation when the conduct was willful or knowing. When a corporate defendant hands over thousands of guest records to federal agents without legal process, the court has the authority to multiply the damages, and treble damages against a deep-pocketed national chain can transform an individual claim into a substantial recovery.
Beyond the CPA, the Washington State Constitution provides protections that go further than the federal Fourth Amendment. Article I, Section 7 provides that “[n]o person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law.” Washington’s Supreme Court has interpreted “private affairs” more broadly than the federal constitution, reaching conduct that the U.S. Constitution might not cover. The disclosure of your hotel guest records to a federal immigration agency, without a warrant, without your consent, and based on the sound of your name, raises serious questions under the Washington Constitution’s privacy guarantee.
Washington’s statute of limitations for Consumer Protection Act claims is generally four years from the act giving rise to the claim. For general tortious privacy violations, the limitations period is three years. Because the Motel 6 disclosures occurred primarily in 2017, the window for filing claims is narrowing but, for many affected guests, has not yet closed. Guests who were minors at the time of the disclosure have additional protections because limitations periods for minors are typically tolled until they reach the age of majority. We pull every applicable deadline before any client moves forward, because missing a statute of limitations is the one mistake that cannot be undone.
Following the Money: The Corporate Shell Game Behind Motel 6
The corporate structure behind Motel 6 is designed with one purpose: to put distance between the people harmed and the entity that profits. We trace that structure in every case, because naming the wrong defendant or missing the right one is the difference between a case that gets heard and a case that gets bounced.
G6 Hospitality LLC operates the Motel 6 brand. G6 Hospitality is the operating entity that owns the brand, sets the policies, controls the training, and collects the franchise fees and operating revenue. When you walked into a Motel 6, you dealt with G6 Hospitality’s system, and that system is the one that handed your information to ICE.
Individual Motel Property Managers — the regional and on-site managers who implemented the policy of handing guest lists to ICE — are also direct defendants. They made the operational decisions. They knew, or should have known, what they were doing was wrong. They are not shielded by the corporate form simply because they work for a larger entity.
The Blackstone Group, the global private equity firm that owned Motel 6 during the period of the disclosures, sits at the top of the corporate stack. Blackstone’s ownership transferred in late 2024 when G6 Hospitality was sold to Oravel Stays (parent of OYO) for $525 million, a transaction that closed on December 17, 2024. The critical question in any individual case is which corporate entity profited from the conduct at issue. For guests whose information was disclosed before December 2024, the responsible parties include the Blackstone-era ownership structure. For guests whose information was disclosed after that date, the Oravel-era ownership structure applies. We identify the correct defendant for the date of the conduct at issue in every case.
Naming the right defendants is not paperwork. It is the foundation of the case. A judgment against the wrong entity is worthless, and a judgment against the right entity is only as good as the assets behind it.
What Your Case Is Worth
We get this question on the first call, and we answer it honestly.
The floor on the case value is set by the Attorney General’s civil-penalty framework. Washington has pursued civil penalties of $2,000 per violation, which, when multiplied across 9,151 compromised guests, creates massive aggregate exposure. Individual class members may receive modest settlements, but the high-value detentions and the potential for treble damages against a deep-pocket defendant like G6 Hospitality drive the total litigation value into the eight-figure range.
For the six individuals who were actually detained as a consequence of Motel 6’s disclosures, the case value is substantially higher. Wrongful detention claims, emotional distress damages, and the stigma of having been reported to immigration authorities based on the sound of your name carry significant weight with Washington juries.
For the broader class of approximately 9,151 guests whose data was disclosed, individual recovery depends on the specific harm suffered. Guests who were detained or who suffered tangible consequences, including lost wages, lost employment, family separation, or ongoing fear and surveillance, will command higher damages. Guests whose information was disclosed but who did not suffer immediate detention still have viable claims for invasion of privacy and violation of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act.
Our honest assessment, based on the size of the defendant, the breadth of the misconduct, the constitutional violations involved, and Washington’s strong consumer-protection framework: the aggregate case value falls between $5,000,000 and $25,000,000. Individual recoveries will vary based on the specific facts of each guest’s experience.
“These estimates do not include any indirect costs such as losses in wages, fringe benefits, and productivity.”
— National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center methodology note — cited here to illustrate a general damages principle that applies to privacy cases as well: a complete damages model accounts for the indirect costs the guest now bears — lost wages, fear, surveillance, family stress — not only the immediate injury.
What Happens If You Were Detained
If you were a Motel 6 guest in Washington between February and September 2017, and your information was shared with ICE, and you were subsequently detained or deported, your case has additional dimensions that go beyond the privacy violation.
You may have a claim for wrongful detention against the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which requires the filing of an administrative claim (Standard Form 95) with the relevant federal agency before any lawsuit can be filed. The administrative-claim deadline is two years from the date the claim accrues, and the lawsuit-filing deadline after a denial is six months. These are unforgiving clocks, and we evaluate every detained guest’s FTCA exposure alongside the state-law claims against Motel 6.
You may also have a claim against Motel 6 for the additional damages caused by the detention itself, including lost wages, lost employment, family separation, emotional distress, and the constitutional violation of being reported to immigration authorities without legal process. The causal link between Motel 6’s voluntary disclosure and your detention is direct, and we build the proof with ICE records, hotel records, and witness testimony.
How We Build the Case: The Investigation Roadmap
Every Motel 6 privacy case follows the same investigative roadmap, though the specific facts of each guest’s experience create different emphasis.
Step One: Confirm the Disclosure. We obtain the Attorney General’s litigation file and any publicly available court records to confirm that your specific stay at a Motel 6 in Washington falls within the documented disclosure period and the identified properties. This is the foundation — we need to prove that your information was, in fact, among the 9,151 disclosed.
Step Two: Pull the ICE Records. We file FOIA requests with ICE for the Form I-213 and any related documents that show what information ICE received about you and how that information was used. These records are the bridge between Motel 6’s voluntary disclosure and the government action that followed.
Step Three: Interview Former Employees. We identify and interview former Motel 6 employees from the relevant properties who can testify about how the disclosure practice worked, who directed it, and what training (or absence of training) staff received regarding guest privacy and law enforcement cooperation.
Step Four: Corporate Discovery. We pursue discovery against G6 Hospitality for internal communications, training materials, corporate policies on guest privacy and law enforcement cooperation, and the corporate structure that controlled the properties where the disclosures occurred.
Step Five: Damages Documentation. We document the specific harm you suffered, whether that harm was detention, deportation, lost employment, family separation, ongoing fear, or the general sense that your private affairs were violated by a corporation that promised to protect them.
The roadmap is the same for every case. The facts, the evidence, and the damages are different for every client, and that is where the case lives or dies.
First 72 Hours: What to Do Right Now
If you believe you were a Motel 6 guest in Washington between February and September 2017 whose information was shared with ICE, the following steps protect your case.
Today. Write down everything you remember about your stay: the location, the dates, the room number if you have it, the names of any staff you interacted with, any ICE contact you experienced afterward. Memory degrades. Write it down now while it is fresh.
This week. Gather any documents you still have: the receipt from your stay, your credit-card statement showing the charge, any confirmation email, photos you took at or near the property. Preserve them in a safe place.
This week. Do not post about your case on social media. Do not discuss the details with anyone other than your attorney. Defense counsel monitors public statements, and anything you say publicly can be used against you.
This week. Call us at 1-888-ATTY-911 for a free consultation. We will tell you honestly whether you have a case, what it is worth, and what the next steps are. There is no fee unless we win.
What Sets Our Firm Apart for This Kind of Case
Consumer protection litigation against a national chain is not the same as a routine personal injury case. It requires a different skill set, a different timeline, and a different relationship with the client. Our firm is structured for this work.
We start every case with a preservation strategy. The letter goes out the day you call. Evidence that can be destroyed is frozen. Records that can be deleted are held. Witnesses whose memories can degrade are identified and scheduled for interview. The defense cannot benefit from delay because we do not give them delay.
We build every case for trial, even when we expect settlement. G6 Hospitality’s defense team will take your case more seriously when they know we are prepared to try it. Every deposition we take, every expert we retain, every motion we file, sends the same message: we are ready, and the cost of fighting us exceeds the cost of paying your claim.
We communicate with you in your language. Lupe Peña conducts full consultations in Spanish without an interpreter. Our bilingual staff ensures that language is never a barrier to justice.
We work on contingency. No fee unless we win. You do not pay attorney fees unless we recover money for you, and the defendant’s share of costs is recovered from them under Washington’s Consumer Protection Act. The financial risk is ours, not yours.
Our practice areas include consumer protection claims, class action services, and civil rights litigation — exactly the disciplines this case requires. We have the trial team to take on G6 Hospitality, and we have the institutional commitment to see the case through to its conclusion.
The Bottom Line
If you were a guest at a Motel 6 in Washington between February and September 2017, and your personal information was shared with ICE agents without a warrant and without your knowledge, you have rights under Washington law that the courts will enforce. The Washington State Attorney General has already proved the pattern. What remains is for individual guests to come forward and assert the claims the law gives them.
The evidence is time-sensitive. The clock on the defendant’s record-retention obligations is running. Your memory of the stay is clearest today and less clear tomorrow. The defense team is already building their case against you.
Call Attorney911 at 1-888-ATTY-911 for a free consultation. There is no fee unless we win. We will tell you honestly whether you have a case, what it is worth, and what the next step is. If we take your case, we move the same day.
If you prefer to learn more about how consumer protection cases work, our guide to consumer protection claims explains the legal framework and what to expect. If you want to understand the contingency-fee structure, our explanation of how contingency fees work walks you through the math.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
Hablas Español. Hablamos Español. Llámanos al 1-888-ATTY-911 para una consulta gratuita — sin compromiso, sin costo a menos que ganemos tu caso.
