In January 2026, the Department of Homeland Security leveled accusations against popular hotel chain Hilton of putting together a “coordinated campaign” to refuse service to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents by canceling reservations at a Minneapolis hotel as the agency prepared to escalate immigration enforcement operations in the city.
Screenshots were posted by DHS on social media platform X showing emails from a Hilton hotel address stating that immigration officers do not have permission to stay at the Hampton Inn Lakeville property, located in a suburb to the south of Minneapolis. “After further investigation online, we have found information about immigration work connected with your name and we will be cancelling your upcoming reservation,” the email read.
“You should see a proper cancellation email in your inbox shortly from Hilton,” it continued. DHS redacted the names of the agents who received the email from the message. “We have noticed an influx of GOV reservations made today that have been for DHS, and we are not allowing any ICE or immigration agents to stay at our property,” another email said.
“If you are with DHS or immigration, let us know as we will have to cancel your reservation,” it added, according to a report from CNN. The Lakeville Hilton is independently owned and operated by a company called Everpeak Hospitality. Everpeak responded to the incident with a statement posted on its website that said the behavior of the hotel “was inconsistent with our policy of being a welcoming place for all,” and that they are “in touch with the impacted guests to ensure they are accommodated.”
However, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin was not willing to accept Everpeak’s statement, writing a lengthy response to it on X, revealing that neither DHS nor ICE heard from the company. “We have been in direct contact with the hotel, and they have apologized for the actions of their team, which was not in keeping with their policies,” Hilton said in a statement given to CNN.
“They have taken immediate action to resolve this matter and are contacting impacted guests to ensure they are accommodated. Hilton’s position is clear: Our properties are open to everyone and we do not tolerate any form of discrimination,” the statement continued. Later, Hilton put out a second statement expressing concerns that the Lakeville property was “not meeting our standards” and would be taking “immediate action” to remove the hotel from its system.
However, all of these statements appeared to have been a lie. Conservative influencer Nick Sortor posted a video shortly after the initial responses to the incident came out, showing him speaking with an employee at the front desk, who tells him that they had not been informed of any changes to their policies regarding “not accepting people from immigration, ICE agents, DHS.”
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Sortor attempted to secure 10 rooms for the Department of Homeland Security and was promptly denied. He spoke of the encounter on Fox News, saying, “I came back here, walked in, tried to buy a room, they asked me what my Hilton Honors number was!” He added, “So they HAVEN’T been cut off from the system. You can’t book it online, but at the same time, they still have access to Hilton’s computer system.”
Sortor then told Fox host Laura Ingraham, “We CANNOT take this stuff at face-value, where these big corporations say ‘we’re gonna do this’ and we say ‘we won!’ We have to hold their feet to the fire! This is TWICE NOW they tried to say they reprimanded the foreigners who own the hotel.” Hilton responded to the video with another 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,” Hilton said. According to a report from April 2026, there were eventually some consequences for the hotel’s actions. Not only did they officially lose their Hilton branding, but in March the hotel was sold for $8.5 million by the owners. This was a 29% reduction in price from the original $11.9 million that was paid by the previous owners.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video