One of the largest hotel chains in the U.S. is booting a location from its franchise after employees reportedly continued to refuse service to federal immigration agents.
Hilton Hotels & Resorts is removing a Minneapolis hotel from its system after video footage appeared to show management continuing to refuse reservations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, the company confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation on Tuesday. The controversy coincides with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) increased activity in the city.
“The independent hotel owner had assured us that they had fixed this problem and published a message confirming this,” a Hilton spokesperson told the DCNF. “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,” the spokesperson continued.
DHS released screenshots on Monday of emails sent to an immigration agent, in which management at the Minneapolis location declared that they are “not allowing any ICE or immigration agents to stay at our property.” Hotel management later declared that they had confirmed the individual in question was connected to “immigration work” and that their reservation would be cancelled.
In response, a spokesman for Hilton stated that the location in question, which is independently owned and operated, had apologized for their actions.
However, video footage taken by independent journalist Nick Sortor appeared to show that the Minneapolis franchisee was still not falling in line with company policy. An employee working the front desk continued to refuse reservations to DHS employees, telling Sortor on camera that he had just confirmed with his manager that it was still hotel policy to refuse service to federal immigration agents.
“I just talked to the owner of the building and he didn’t say there had been any changes,” the man stated to Sortor in the video, which was filmed around 10:00 p.m. local time. “It’s just policy.”
Minneapolis has been subject to intense media scrutiny ever since reporting in late 2025 revealed that millions of dollars in taxpayer money had been stolen through an orchestrated scheme of bogus non-profit groups, largely involving Somali migrants. The prevalence of Somali-related fraud in the city was further realized after an independent journalist allegedly uncovered a string of fake daycare centers raking in state funding.
Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who partnered with former Vice President Kamala Harris in her failed presidential run, announced on Monday he would no longer seek a third term in office, citing the growing fraud scandal as a major reason for his decision.
DHS is deploying hundreds of immigration agents to the Twin Cities region in Minnesota amid the widening fraud scandal, with the major deployment presumably requiring many agents to book rooms at various hotels in the area.
“Hilton is – and has always been – a welcoming place for all,” a company spokesperson told the DCNF. “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.”
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