The Trump administration put Hilton hotels on blast, claiming that their properties in the Minneapolis area are canceling reservations made with government emails and rates and are refusing to host immigration personnel, calling the hotel effort a “coordinated campaign.”
One reproduced email explicitly references “Hampton Inn Lakeville” and says they’re “not allowing any ICE or immigration agents to stay at our property.” That property is a franchise and isn’t actually owned and operated by Hilton.
There has been organized pressure on hotels, including in the Minneapolis area, to stop housing ICE agents as part of the “No Sleep for ICE” movement. This doesn’t prove the “coordinated campaign” on the part of Hilton claim, but it suggests why individual properties might decide to refuse stays.
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.
This is… pic.twitter.com/qKMKypGtzi
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) January 5, 2026
During the first Trump administration, Marriott, Hilton, and Choice hotels refused to serve as detention centers to temporarily house people picked up in immigration raids.
Hilton also told the federal government to stop using its hotels to house children detained at the border. Although some Hilton properties continued housing migrant families early in the Biden administration.
(HT: @crucker)
Big difference in refusing to house illegal aliens and refusing to house government workers. I don’t see how the latter should be allowed.
We are all the liberals defending the rule of law and democracy?
Seems like Trump could easily order a worldwide ban on federal employees staying at Hilton. See how HH likes that.
Sounds like the free market to me.
How does ICE check in to a hotel? Wearing a mask and with no ID? Do they just bodyslam the front desk agent and demand a suite?
Hotels should be paying the other guests for exposing them to armed criminals with no legal accountability.
How does the rule of law affect a private companies decision of who they want to do business with?
Good for Hilton. Cheap government rates are a not good profit center vs the possible damage these people can cause room damage and bad publicity for the brand.
@Common Sense — Tell us about that gay birthday cake case again…
This is why it’s important to have smart people in government. Tweeting like a NY Post headline from an official government account, pathetic and embarrassing.
DHS and ICE agents brought this on themselves. If they had treated detainees with respect and only gone after true criminals, then the protest against their actions would be minuscule. Instead, they are acting like brown-shirted thugs who are above reproach. That there is pushback is to be expected. The hotel industry is largely operated by immigrants; they are seeing their own community attacked and have chosen not to support it.
Good
Hilton, for the WIN.
I’m sure Hilton “will investigate” and blame this on a single employee who was not authorized to make these decisions. The employee has been terminated.
However, if I’m wrong, of course Hilton can make any business decisions they wish. Of course, when President Trump makes all Hilton properties off limits to government reimbursement, their tune will change. FAFO
Minnesota has fallen. Now back to defrauding the US Government by the Somali mafia.
Hilton will experience the Streisand Effect. They didn’t have a way to win here, but IMHO they bought themselves publicity which will hurt them. By not acting they might have avoided attention. But maybe it was a loser either way.
how dare DHS stop Somali’s getting BILLIONS in tax payer money. these are hard working people who have set up 100s of daycare centers and medicade offices. the somali people built america. somalis where on the mayflower, along with other muslims. somali’s and muslim’s played a strong role in early america, even the Marine Corps have a line about a muslim city. Tripoli
@Pete +1
Maybe the government should remove all government protection for those properties. Anyone who wants to damage them or set fire to them, go ahead. Or build a wall around the properties so they have no access to public roads.
Well look like Hilton HDQ is attempting to separate itself from this rogue franchise operator. They do not support this and are looking into it. I wonder if the Somali mafia is running this one.
I hope Everpeak (Patel, Singh, Kaur etc.) has their I-9’s in order.
@Coffee Please — LOL. Yeah, right… total chaos there… (not.)
@ron – what do you mean ‘true’ criminal?
These are people who ignored the basic laws of border entry and exit, and REFUSED to enter thru a port of entry to claim assylum. And they also walked past multiple US Embassies that were trying to get them to preregister and get their turn to *legally* enter the country.
I suggest the next time you fly international, refuse to give over your passport. See how quickly you are allowed into that country.
As a person who lives in Minnesota, where the vast majority of Somalis are decent people, no matter what the angry and credulous few want to believe, I also say “good”. These little establishments are showing far more courage and honor than the big corporations and universities who immediately rolled over and played dead when a loud mouthed bully threatened them.
And here we are again. When we’re talking gay weddings, Muslim anything, Christian this-and-that, conservatives literally wet themselves insisting that business have the right to refuse service…TO ANYONE. Now here we are and the policy they once embraced is now being used against them. Laughably, the very same people think the rest of us are too stupid to notice.
No one’s opinion on the whether this or isn’t right or legal need to remember…the precedent has been set. Now comes the consequences.
If some hateful hillbilly homophobic cake baker is legally allowed and you support their right to refuse services to anyone they choose then the Hampton Inn Moose Snout can refuse service to whoever they damn well please.
This is outstanding news! Keep up the good work denying services to the tRump gestapo. I will be adding Hilton to the top of my preferred hotel list for sure!
@ Gary — Awesome to see this hotel standing up tp the a**holes who have hijacked the USA. If in Minneapolis, I would consider this property! Can I use my Aspire resort credit there?
@ Commen Sense — The fascists running the USA have no interest in law and order. They have trampled the constitution. Corporations can and should choose to rebel against these tyrants.
Well said, @drrichard, @Parker, and @Gene.
At the same time Hilton continues operating hotels in Russia. A quick search on hhonors.com shows 24 Hilton properties bookable for cash or points (from 15 to 45k points/night) for Jan 12-15. Just wondering whether Hilton has any policies about who is staying in those 24 properties.
The Hilton employees’ emails really put themselves in a corner by giving too much information. If they want to say they are not accepting reservations from all federal employees, that’s probably ok. If they say it’s DHS employees, that would probably fly. If ICE wanted to enter the building without a search or arrest warrent, the hotel could likely refuse without running afoul of the law. But by explicitly denying a public accomodation to law enforcement officers to effectively hinder their enforcement their actions (specifically around immigration laws) they potentially cross into willful interference with the administration of justice (obstruction of justice), which can be a felony, and perhaps violation of federal and state civil rights laws. You don’t have to be in a protected class to benefit from these civil rights laws when it comes to public accomodations.
As usual, the answer is very simple. Look to property rights.
“If some hateful hillbilly homophobic cake baker is legally allowed and you support their right to refuse services to anyone they choose then the Hampton Inn Moose Snout can refuse service to whoever they damn well please.” There is currently an important legal distinction between refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding and denying accommodation. So, what about the hotel in Backwaters BF that doesn’t what gays or blacks? You apparently think they should be able to “refuse service to whoever they damn well please.”
Third Amendment, but whatever.
DHS pressure got Hilton Corp & EverPeak to reinstate reservations.
If I see masked goons at a hotel in the US, I wouldn’t want to stay there. Same with a neo-Nazi conference.
“You apparently think they should be able to “refuse service to whoever they damn well please.”
Yep, they should!
Re: Third Ammendment – a hotel, which is a public accomodation, is not a home as per the ammendment.
The Founders weren’t fans of inn operators being forced to house imperial thugs.
Go check out what the “Intolerable Acts” were. Among those were the Quartering Acts which required inns in the colonies to host British forces. The American revolutionaries despised those rules and it informed the drafters of the Bill of Rights.
Wow, @Mike P, welcome to the resistance, buddy!
@GUWonder — Yeah, I was thinkin’ the 3rd, too, but, it’s more about soldiers, not police; then again, ICE is acting more like a paramilitary these days, rather than mere law enforcement. Maybe this should be litigated; might as well give the Supreme Court yet another chance to be 6-3 shills for daddy.
Presumably government contracts are huge to the parent chain. This property might soon FAFO.
I guess we’re not in Amerika anymore , the business no longer has a right to refuse accepting lower government rates rather than it’s own.
@George Romey — Nah.
This idiot franchisee just lost their Hilton licensing. They are in the FO portion now.
@Alex — Reminds me of Randy Marsh: “I’m sorry, I thought this was America…”
Will Hilton now start removing hotels that have mold in their rooms? Or is that not a brand standard?
@GUWonder. The Quartering Act of 1765 was a British law enacted before the US existed. It does not exist as part of the US Constitution or US law.
Trump and ICE won in the end.
Hilton ended up doing whats right and kicked the america hating traitors that run that hotel to the curb.
Its bad news to go against the majority in this country these days. Woke lost and it’s not coming back.
I am happy that Hilton, and the franchise owner, did that.