Annie McAdams argues that the role of major hotel chains in the human trafficking crisis now plaguing the state of Texas and other parts of the country can’t be ignored.
“We believe this case will prove that the hotel industry knows and benefits from sex trafficking,” McAdams, a Houston-based personal injury attorney now representing as many as 18 clients against some of the country’s biggest and best known hotel chains, told the Houston Republic. “For far too long, they have turned a blind eye on this kind of behavior as it’s become a public crisis.”
With that, McAdams is demanding that those she sees as having caused much of the damage now be held accountable.
“The question is who is responsible to these victims,” she said. "We don’t believe it should be our tax dollars; we don’t believe it should come from church dollars. It should be those who have benefited.”
Some of the chains named as civil defendants include Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, dba La Quinta Inn & Suites; Hilton Worldwide Holdings, dba Doubletree by Hilton; and Choice Hotels-Comfort Inn brands, with all of them facing accusations of having violated the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act by not prohibiting such actions at their properties. In each of the suits, Jane Doe alleges the hotel brand allowed her to be trafficked at properties where workers failed to prevent illicit activities against them after observing suspect behavior.
McAdams has previously filed legal action against dozens of social media websites and other hotel operators in state district courts on some of the same grounds.
“We want to see more of these hotels join in the fight against sex trafficking,” McAdams said. “We want to see them be more vigilant when kids are brought on the property. If you see something, you need to say something.”
While McAdams said the initial response to her suit across the industry has been one of “utter panic” and to “adamantly deny,” she added some of the more progressive chains have since stepped up to be part of the solution.
“It’s a credit to some of them that they are making changes, and that is essentially what this case is all about,” she said. “Some of these more progressive chains are really looking to make changes.”
According to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, at any moment the state is home to at least 79,000 minor victims of sex trafficking. In 2019, state lawmakers proposed Senate Bill 498 as a way of hopefully curbing some of the criminality.
The bill that seeks to hold building owners and landlords liable for failing to stop traffickers on their premises failed to advance during the legislative session, but supporters of the measure have vowed to reintroduce it in the future.
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