You work at the front desk of a hotel in a small town near the border between the United States and Mexico. When you check in guests, you ask them to show identification and provide the make, model, and license plate numbers of their cars. You guarantee your customers that you will protect their privacy. 

One evening, an agent from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) comes to the hotel. He asks you to provide the names of all guests who have Hispanic surnames and the license plate numbers of their cars. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that hotel operators are not required to provide such information but can do so voluntarily. You go ahead and provide the information.

A few weeks later, you are talking with one of your friends in local law enforcement. She tells you based on credible information that ICE has used the information you gave it to track down the hotel’s guests and question them about whether they have entered the United States lawfully (i.e., entered at an authorized check point and gone through the required screening). Based on their answers and failure to provide the required proof, some of these guests have been detained or deported to Mexico. 

Did you do the right thing in handing over information to the ICE? If you were in hotel management, what policy should you develop to address these situations?