A former J-1 visa worker at St. Regis Aspen Resort faces opposition from Marriott International to turn his worker-exploitation complaint into a class-action lawsuit with former employees.
The operator of an upscale Aspen resort hotel is objecting to a former foreign intern’s attempt to add former J-1 exchange employees to a lawsuit alleging they were exploited as workers and victims of human trafficking, recent court records show.
Mexican national Daniel Esteban Camas López’ lawsuit against Marriott International Inc. is now in the stage where his attorneys are seeking the court’s certification of a class of plaintiffs comprising “all J-1 visa trainees and interns that worked at the St. Regis Aspen Resort” during an unspecified nine-year period.
The members would join Lopez’ litigation in a class-action lawsuit that has three unresolved claims against Marriott — violation of Colorado’s human trafficking statute, violation of the federal Trafficking Victims Protections Act and violation of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. The U.S. District Court of Colorado in Denver is the venue for the dispute. St. Regis is not a party in the complaint; defendant Marriott is its parent company.
An April 11 court filing by Lopez, a motion for class certification, is viewable exclusively to the court and the parties and counsel in the case; it is closed to the general public and media. The motion is categorized as a “Level 1 Restriction” on court filings containing sensitive personal data such as immigration and visa program details and internal company documents, for example.
While that filing is restricted, the executive director of the law firm representing Lopez referred to the Aspen lawsuit in a fiery speech he delivered from the steps of the Colorado State Capitol on April 15 as part of what was billed as a Tax Day Rally protesting tax cuts for corporations and billionaires.
In unconfirmed, quantitative terms, attorney David Seligman of the nonprofit firm Towards Justice referred to billionaire homeowners and private aircraft landing in Aspen as a backdrop for what amounts to cheap foreign labor.
“There are 100 billionaires who own homes in Aspen — a hundred. Private jets land in the Aspen airport 10,000 times a year,” he said. “Can you imagine that — 10,000 private jet landings a year.”
Seligman, a Democrat who earlier this week announced his candidacy for the state attorney general’s race in 2026, went on to say: “In the shadow of those billionaires, one of Towards Justice’s clients made 14 bucks an hour working 72 hours a week cleaning and cooking for a hotel that charged 2,000 bucks a night for a hotel room.
“He was charged 800 bucks a month by his employer — they took right out of his paycheck — to pay for his housing. His housing? A bed in a room with several other workers in a dilapidated house an hour away from the hotel where he worked. Human trafficking, right there in the shadows of the homes of billionaires. Working families, you know, are struggling across all of our communities, including across all of our mountain communities.”
Seligman’s remarks came one day after Marriott introduced its formal reply to the lawsuit. The reply countered that Marriott did not recruit Lopez to work as a J-1; however, the hotel company complied with the legal requirements related to the J-1 program with Lopez. Marriott also argued Lopez’ allegations are too speculative and it “denies each and every allegation” against it.
On Tuesday, Marriott indicated in a court filing it was challenging the class-action certification.
“This case involves (Lopez’) claims that he was coerced into working at the St. Regis Aspen Resort when he otherwise would not have done so. Marriott unequivocally denies (Lopez’) allegations and submits that they have been disproven in the discovery taken to date,” the filing says.
According to his lawsuit, Lopez, a 2019 graduate of Universidad Autónoma de Queretaro in Mexico with a degree in culinary arts, began work in the Roaring Fork Valley in the fall of 2020 at a hotel in Snowmass Village, which closed at the end of the ski season in spring 2021.
He relocated to St. Regis to continue his internship in May 2020. At St. Regis, however, he performed long hours of menial labor inconsistent with his internship’s educational goals, alleges the suit. To fill staffing shortages, the hotel allegedly used Lopez and other interns as cheap labor.
The suit claims that Lopez’s chores did not provide any value to the internship plan, which called for a 32-hour minimum and 40-hour maximum workweek, and paid him $14 an hour and $21 for overtime. Lopez paid for rental housing through Marriott’s $800 deduction from his paycheck each month to live with other interns in what the suit calls a “dilapidated house.”
Marriott claims Lopez voluntarily accepted the internship, received proper training and compensation and was provided cultural and educational opportunities as required by the J-1 program.
Towards Justice initially filed the suit on behalf of Lopez in Pitkin County District Court in October 2023. Marriott had it transferred to the U.S. District Court of Colorado in Denver in December 2023.
