The Department of Homeland Security has accused hotels in Minneapolis of “maliciously” denying rooms to ICE agents heading to the Democratic-led city as part of a massive operation to crack down on illegal immigration and expand fraud probes.
The deployment of 2,000 federal workers, including up to 1,500 ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers and hundreds of Homeland Security Investigation agents, began on Sunday, officials told CBS News.
As the first of the federal agents arrived in the Midwest city, the DHS on Monday accused staff at the Hilton Minneapolis of refusing ICE agents service.
DHS alleged that hotel staff 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 UNACCEPTABLE,” DHS said in a statement shared on X.
“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?” the statement concluded.
DHS, in their X post, also included grabs purportedly showing emails from Hilton email accounts to agents on Jan. 2.
“After further investigation online, we have found information about immigration work connected with your name and we will be cancelling your upcoming reservation,” states the email, purportedly from a manager at the Hampton Inn by Hilton in Lakeville, MN, south of Minneapolis.
“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,” the email continues.
“If you are with DHS or immigration, let us know as we will have to cancel your reservation,” the email states.
Representatives for the hotel and for Hilton did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The month-long Minneapolis operation is among the largest DHS deployments in a US city in recent years, as its agents are expected to expand fraud probes linked to federally funded programs.
At the same time, ICE officers are in the Twin Cities area to focus on arresting migrants with deportation orders.
US Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino, who previously oversaw immigration raids in LA, Chicago, Charlotte and New Orleans, is expected to arrive in Minnesota to help lead operations in the state, officials said.
The unprecedented scale of the operation is expected to see as many HSI agents deployed to Minneapolis as in the entire state of Arizona, a former law enforcement official told CBS News.
“This is a massive resource allocation,” the official said, adding that Minneapolis was becoming “the new Chicago,” in reference to recent large-scale federal deployments in the Windy City.