Tell Sonesta: Stop Turning Hotels Into ICE Jails

A hotel room is supposed to be a place of safety. But according to a disturbing new lawsuit, a Sonesta hotel near Chicago's O'Hare airport became a makeshift jail for a mother and her seven-month-old baby.

Valentina Galvis, a Colombian asylum-seeker, says she and her infant son, a U.S. citizen, were confined in a Sonesta hotel room for five days after ICE detained them in June 2025. They couldn't leave. They couldn't contact their family or lawyer. And they had no idea when they would be released.

Now Galvis is suing Sonesta and ICE contractor MVM, alleging they worked together to imprison her and her baby for profit. The lawsuit describes horrifying consequences, including stress that reduced her breastmilk production and health problems for her child.

Sonesta doesn't have to wait for a court ruling to stop its hotels from being used as detention cells. Its executives can act now—and with the company under scrutiny, we have a chance to make them.

Tell Sonesta: Keep ICE detention out of your hotels.

And Sonesta can't simply blame ICE. The lawsuit alleges that the hotel company knowingly provided the room where Galvis and her baby were confined—and profited from the arrangement.

Sonesta is the eighth-largest hotel company in the United States, with more than 1,100 properties worldwide. This isn't some tiny hotel operator. It's a major hospitality company with the reach and influence to set an example for the entire industry. 

So far, they’ve declined to comment on the lawsuit. But the company doesn't need to wait for a court ruling to do the right thing. Its executives can prohibit their hotels from being used to detain immigrants and put enforceable rules in place to make sure it never happens again.

We don't know how many other hotel chains are participating in similar arrangements. But Galvis's newly publicized lawsuit has put Sonesta under fresh scrutiny. Now is our chance to turn that attention into real pressure—and win a policy change that could reach far beyond one company.

If Sonesta refuses to act, it sends a message that hotel chains can continue profiting from ICE's detention machine without facing consequences. But if Sonesta takes a stand, it can show every other hotel company in America that they can refuse to participate, too.

Add your name to demand that Sonesta stop turning hotel rooms into ICE jails—and set an example for the entire hotel industry.

The petition to Sonesta International Hotels Corporation reads:

“We demand that Sonesta immediately prohibit its hotels from being used to detain immigrants on behalf of ICE or its contractors, end any arrangements facilitating such detention, and adopt a public, enforceable company-wide policy protecting against this practice across all Sonesta properties.”