Tucson community members and University of Arizona students gathered Friday, Sept. 12, outside the Aloft Tucson University Hotel to protest Marriott’s recent association with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Protesters demanded Marriott honor its 2019 commitment to not allow any of its properties, including the Aloft Tucson University Hotel, to serve as detention facilities for ICE.
The protest was organized by the Marriott ICE Melt Coalition in response to reports that a Sheraton property owned by Marriott in Alexandria, Louisiana, was being used to detain immigrant families and unaccompanied children. The news contradicted Marriott’s 2019 statement promising its hotels “are not configured to be detention facilities” and would decline any request from ICE to use them. Marriott denies direct involvement, stating it falls on third-party operations. For protesters, this distinction was meaningless.
“Marriott owns the building, Marriott profits from the building and Marriott is responsible for breaking its own promise,” Bennett Burke, the lead organizer with the Marriott Ice Melt Coalition, said. “All we are asking is something simple, renew your pledge. Stop working with ICE.”
For students like Arian Chavez, the protest was about standing in solidarity with immigrant classmates. “I came out today to support our immigrant brothers and sisters who are facing mass deportation on a scale never seen before,” Chavez said. “Tucson is run by immigrants, and we are here to say no to racial profiling. We don’t want ICE in our classes or our streets. Students should be able to learn without the fear of ICE.”
The protest was not only about Marriott’s ties with ICE but also about the fear and division created in neighborhoods and schools. With two Marriott hotels so close to campus, the issue felt personal for many UA students, including Elizabeth Trausch. “When you see a big corporation like Marriott complicit in tearing families apart, it just makes people feel powerless,” Trausch said. “Being here today shows we are not powerless, we are a community.”
Trausch urges all students to get involved, “Our generation is the one that is going to make a difference for our future,” she said.
Tucson residents agreed. Luke Feliz-Rose, who works with Democracy Town Criers, warned that Marriott’s actions put undocumented students at risk. “This is Tucson, where community pressure has always gotten results. That pressure is exactly what we are bringing to Marriott now,” Feliz-Rose said.
Organizers delivered a letter to Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano demanding that the company renew its 2019 promise, require all properties regardless of franchise status to uphold it and publicly spread the commitment through national media outlets.
They plan to use community and economic pressure, pointing to boycotts of Tesla and Target which started in Tucson as proof of how public action can influence corporations. Burke said that the protests are “all legal, all nonviolent, but disruptive enough to make Marriott listen.”
The protest was a warning to Marriott and a demonstration of the unity Tucson’s community shares. Many who attended described their presence as a way to strengthen solidarity in the face of fear.
“We have so many struggles happening right now, from mass deportations to corporate hypocrisy,” Chavez said. “Standing together is how we keep our communities safe. This fight is about empathy, and about making sure no one is left behind.”
