In Letters to over 100 Companies, Union President Urges Hospitality Industry to Refuse Cooperation with ICE

New York, NY – Days after joining a major campaign calling on American hospitality companies to refuse participation in coming ICE raids, the union that represents North American hospitality workers is applauding Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Choice Hotels—some of the largest hotel companies in the world–for leading the way in making that pledge.

“Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Choice hotels have shown moral leadership in refusing to allow their hotels be used as temporary jails for immigrant families,” said D. Taylor, International President of UNITE HERE.  “Hotels are meant to welcome people from all over the world, not jail them. Common decency and common business sense demands it.”

As news broke of coming ICE raids and the prospect of detained families being housed in American hotels, UNITE HERE joined coalition partners CREDO Mobile, Sanctuary DMV, Jobs with Justice, Make the Road, Daily Kos, and MoveOn in calling on the hotel industry to refuse to comply. With ICE raids rumored to begin this weekend, UNITE HERE has also issued letters to more than one hundred leading companies who run hotels, institutional food service and casinos nationwide, demanding they too refuse cooperation with the U.S. government in the detention and deportation of immigrant families.

“We strongly oppose this policy, and we are calling on you and all of our employer partners to join us in refusing to aid and abet this administration’s mass deportations,” the letter from President Taylor reads. “As you know, immigrants contribute heavily to the hospitality industry, which would suffer without their backbreaking work and commitment to their workplaces.”

Copies of letters regarding the ICE raids sent by President Taylor on behalf of the union to each employer with collective bargaining agreements with UNITE HERE are available online, with a separate letter for each sector the union represents: hotels, gaming, and food service.  UNITE HERE is proud to represent many immigrant workers and is deeply committed to immigrant justice.

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UNITE HERE has over 300,000 members working in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries in the U.S. and Canada. Learn more at www.unitehere.org