Hilton has terminated a hotel’s franchise status in Minneapolis after it canceled reservations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
The Department of Homeland Security accused the Hilton Minneapolis of “a coordinated campaign” against ICE officers on Monday. Later that day, conservative journalist Nick Sortor filmed a video that showed an employee confirming the anti-ICE policy remained in effect after the DHS statement.
Hilton said it had been reassured that the anti-immigration enforcement policy had been changed and terminated the hotel’s status as a franchise after viewing the video.
“The independent hotel owner had assured us that they had fixed this problem and published a message confirming this. A recent video clearly raises concerns that they are not meeting our standards and values. As such, we are taking immediate action to remove this hotel from our systems,” Hilton said in a statement.
“Hilton is — and has always been — a welcoming place for all. We are also engaging with all of our franchisees to reinforce the standards we hold them to across our system to help ensure this does not happen again,” the company added.
The company previously said the owner of the hotel, Everpeak Hospitality, had apologized for canceling the reservations. Everpeak also said it would be in “touch with the impacted guests to ensure they are accommodated. We do not discriminate against any individuals or agencies and apologize to those impacted.”
Sortor’s video showed him asking a hotel employee to book multiple rooms under the government rate. The employee then asked what agency the booking would be under. Sortor replied that it would be under DHS, and the employee said the hotel is “not accepting people from immigration, ICE agents, DHS, into our property.”
“That’s just per management, ownership,” the employee added.
Hilton had drawn biting criticism from the Trump administration for its exclusion of the ICE officers as the DHS converged on Minnesota.
“NO ROOM AT THE INN! @HiltonHotels has launched a coordinated campaign in Minneapolis to REFUSE service to DHS law enforcement. When officers attempted to book rooms using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels maliciously CANCELLED their reservations,” the DHS wrote on X.
“This is UNACCEPTABLE. Why is Hilton Hotels siding with murderers and rapists to deliberately undermine and impede DHS law enforcement from their mission to enforce our nation’s immigration laws?” DHS added.
TRUMP TO DEPLOY 2,000 ICE OFFICERS TO MINNEAPOLIS AS FRAUD INVESTIGATION WIDENS
DHS will deploy around 2,000 agents and officers to Minneapolis, CBS News reported on Monday.
An official described the deployment as a “massive resource allocation” as Minnesota reckons with a widening healthcare fraud scandal that conservatives have also attributed to the state’s Somali population.