Global hospitality company Hilton will remove a Minnesota hotel from its network, after a video surfaced indicating it still refused to house agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) despite the hotel saying it had addressed the problem.
Employees at the Hampton Inn in Lakeville, Minnesota, had canceled reservations for the federal agents this past week, saying in an email that they were “not allowing any [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] or immigration agents to stay on their property.”
But on Jan. 6, Hilton said it would sever ties with the hotel, as concerns about the issue remained.
“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 company added that it was engaging with its franchisees to prevent the situation from happening.
“Even the FRONT DESK manager said he had spoken with the owner shortly before I walked in around 10:50 pm, and confirmed the ANTI-DHS POLICY REMAINED IN EFFECT,” Sortor wrote in an X post accompanying the video.
Sortor informed the employee of Hilton’s statement, but was still unable to book the room after the hotel’s owners did not answer a phone call for clarification.
Sortor ended the video by saying that Hilton would get “Bud Lighted,” i.e., boycotted.
The contact page on Everpeak Hospitality’s website was nonfunctional at press time.
As of Dec. 30, the operation had resulted in more than 500 immigration-related arrests and over 1,000 fraud investigations, McLaughlin said in an interview on Fox News.
Amid blowback from the fraud revelations, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced on Jan. 5 that he would not seek reelection.
