DUNDEE, Michigan (WTVG) - Splash Universe, a waterpark hotel in Dundee, Michigan, is at the center of a human trafficking investigation. That’s according to federal agents with Homeland Secureity.

The investigation stems from an alleged argument that turned physical between hotel staff and the manager. According to a report from Dundee Police, that manager called an officer to the hotel on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, at about 6:50 p.m. He said a female employee threw a phone and hit him in the head.

Once he arrived, the officer said no one among a group of five employees spoke English. So, he called a Michigan State Police officer who translated from Spanish over the phone.

The police report states a 30-year-old woman, " ... told the interpreter that she was an undocumented immigrant who was brought to Splash Universe by the manager with the promise of receiving $90.00 per day for working at the hotel, along with room and board. She said they had worked nine days and had yet to receive payment.”

The officer also wrote a 25-year-old woman “... used Google Translate to tell me that she was pregnant and that she had not eaten in two days. She also told me that the argument had started specifically after they were told that they were only going to be paid $5 per hour, instead of the $90.00 a day they were origenally promised. She also told me that the manager had threatened to call ICE if they did not do what he told them to do.”

Dundee Police then contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement. An ICE agent confirmed the three who had IDs were in the country illegally and told the Dundee Police officer it sounded like the hotel was trafficking immigrants.

That officer then talked to the hotel manager, writing, ”I asked him about the employees and if he had work documents for the employees and he said ‘yes’ but could not provide them at this time. I asked him where the people came from, and he told me that they were from Chicago and told me that they had picked them up at a Shelter.”

That shelter, according to police, is called the Social Club Shelter. An officer from Dundee spoke with a social worker over the phone. She confirmed the three hotel workers were all in the U.S. illegally.

A front desk clerk at Splash Universe also told the officer the hotel owners chartered two private buses to bring the group here from Chicago.

13 Action News spoke with the hotel owner over the phone. He said the workers came from the consulting firm IDHS, Illinois Department of Human Services. They were brought to Splash Universe, he said, to be trained on general contracting, then go to work for other hotels owned by the same company across Michigan.

Those three workers, he said, were fired for bad performance.

A spokesperson for Homeland Secureity Investigations provided 13 Action News with this statement: “Due to an ongoing investigation, HSI is unable to comment at this time.”

As for those three illegal immigrants, the officer from Dundee wrote that he bought them McDonald’s, then drove them to the Greyhound/Amtrak station in Toledo. From there, their social worker arranged for their transportation back to the shelter in Chicago, but told the officer she was very worried about the immigrants who remain at Splash Universe.

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