Protests continue in Scottsdale, where hundreds of people have gathered since May 29 to speak out against the use of a shuttered Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel as an emergency shelter for asylum-seeking families.
Court records show the property on North Scottsdale Road has had financial problems for several years, including a foreclosure action last year against its owner, Woodbridge Hospitality. Its 114 rooms have been rented to Endeavors, a Christian community services organization, to serve as an Emergency Family Staging Center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Texas-based Endeavors has a $87 million contract with ICE through the end of September to provide more than 1,200 beds for families who have applied for political asylum. The Homewood Suites site will only provide about 10 percent of those contracted beds, according to an ICE official who spoke to Arizona Daily Independent on Saturday.
The ICE official, who is not authorized to speak on the record, said politicians and others are distributing misinformation about what is happening at the Scottsdale hotel.
“There’s simply no way we could be cramming 1,200 people into that one hotel,” the official said. “A simple inquiry would have showed it has about 100 rooms. Even if every family had five members that’s less than half of what people are claiming will be staying there at any one time.
Neither ICE nor Endeavors has released any head counts.
The families are slated to remain at a hotel for up to 72 hours “in a manner consistent with legal requirements for the safety and well-being of children and their parents or guardians,” according to a formal ICE statement. Once processed, the asylum-seeking families will be transported elsewhere to meet up with a sponsoring organization or family member.
Court documents show the deal between ICE and Endeavors is worth more than $300,000 per month to Woodbridge, which is the subject of a current bankruptcy action. That would presumably also generate a substantial amount of city sales tax and city bed taxes during the summer, but some Scottsdale residents have made it clear they do not want any immigrants being housed one block from a high school in the middle of a residential area.
For its part, the city is advising residents to express any concerns about the ICE arrangement to contact their federal elected officials, including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, and Rep. David Schweikert
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the contractor who will operate the facility have provided assurances that they will be able to address any operational concerns that may arise,” according to a city statement, which reminded citizens that Scottsdale “has no current authority to prevent the hotel from being rented for these immigrant families.”
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has taken a not-so hands off approach, writing to attorneys for the parties that he believes the property is being operated as a 1,200-person “detention center,” which he believes is not an appropriate or legal use. He also questioned whether the rental to Endeavors complies with current zoning, and cited public safety concerns.
“The potential release of individuals from the detention facility at the Hotel Property only illustrates why the enforcement priorities are bad policy that is harmful to public safety,” Brnovich wrote, adding that Woodbridge’s lender has expressed concerns about the arrangement in filings with the bankruptcy court.
Security at the hotel is being provided by ICE personnel as well as private companies.