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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Oliver Laughland, Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Raima Amjad

Ice used Marriott chain to detain immigrants, despite hotel’s 2019 pledge not to cooperate

Close up of law enforcement badges on chain around a man's neck
Federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court at the Ted Weiss federal building in New York on 9 July 2025. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty Images

A Sheraton hotel in Louisiana has been used by immigration officials to hold people who are being deported, in what appears to be a contradiction of a position Sheraton’s parent company, Marriott, took in 2019 when it said its properties would not be used in cooperation with Ice.

The Intercept first reported that the hotel, located on MacArthur Drive in Alexandria, Louisiana, near a major deportation hub and airport used by Ice, had been used by immigration officials earlier this month to hold a father and his teenage son for four days after their arrest in New York. They were then deported to Ecuador. The Intercept cited phone-tracking evidence that had been shared with the publication and was later seen by the Guardian.

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