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In June 2021, hundreds of protesters and some counter-protesters gathered outside a former Homewood Suites hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona, demonstrating against its housing of families that were seeking asylum. The facility was reported to be operational since late May. Snopes readers shared right-wing media outlet Gateway Pundit’s post about the reported housing of asylum seekers with us. The post claimed that Homewood Suites in Scottsdale was operating as an illegal immigrant safehouse. The headline also stated, Discovered: Migrant Safe House in Scottsdale, Arizona! – ICE and Gov. Agents provide 24/7 security and catering to Illegal Immigrants. Many asked us if the operation of housing asylum seekers was illegal. We looked into the circumstances surrounding the use of the facilities, and learned that while families are indeed being temporarily housed in a former Homewood Suites in Scottsdale, Arizona, this is legal, and the facility is no longer officially part of the Hilton hotel chain. Real estate investment trust Woodbridge Holdings, which owns the former hotel, signed a contract with the nonprofit group Endeavors to manage the space as a temporary holding facility for families seeking asylum until at least Sept. 30, 2021. It is not clear yet what will happen after the contract is up, though one report says Woodbridge Holdings is trying to sell the property. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in turn had contracted with Endeavors to manage the temporary housing. According to Endeavors, the former hotel in Scottsdale would house asylum-seeking families for no more than 72 hours. The nonprofit would connect the migrants with U.S. sponsors, and give them transportation to bus stations or airports so they could reach their final destination. While many online claimed that Homewood Suites in Scottsdale was housing the asylum seekers, this particular facility was no longer part of Hilton hotels, which is the larger entity Homewood Suites is associated with. A Hilton spokesperson told us: Woodbridge Hospitality has filed for bankruptcy, and since May 2020, has defaulted on mortgage payments. According to reporting from May 2021, the group has been trying to close a sale of the property with a company that wanted to convert it into an apartment complex. Woodbridge's lawyers said in court that they expect the sale to be finalized by September. An ICE spokesperson gave us the following statement: The contract with Endeavors uses around $86.9 million in funds, provides support through Sept. 30, and provides 1,239 beds for emergency temporary shelter and other basic needs in facilities across the southwest border for families seeking asylum. It is not clear how much of these funds are going to the facility in Scottsdale. While ICE reportedly will provide access to medical and mental healthcare, cleaning facilities, hygiene kits, clothing, meals, and individual rooms to allow for social distancing, this has not been independently verified. Traci Gomez, Chief Development and Communications Officer at Endeavors told us that they had been working with the US government to provide assistance after a rapid influx of migrants at the southern border earlier this year. Gomez added that they had experience with safely operating shelters in a hotel setting in the COVID environment. The work we do is wholly guided by ICE. Migrant families are placed in hotels to test for COVID, quarantined as necessary as well as provided with complete immigration processing that could not be accomplished at overcrowded Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) facilities. Families are normally in hotel facilities for 2-3 days as they continue processing, Gomez said. Meanwhile, the city of Scottsdale also addressed the protests and the use of the facility in a statement on its official website: While details about all the families within the facility are not known, newly arrived families in the U.S. are within their legal rights to seek asylum. According to the UNHCR, non-U.S. citizens who are physically present or arrive in the country may apply for asylum. Given that ICE, the city of Scottsdale, and numerous news reports have confirmed the operating of this temporary facility for asylum seekers, and it is no longer part of Homewood Suites, we rate this claim as a Mixture.
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