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In January 2026, a Hilton hotel in Minnesota refused service to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Everpeak Hospitality independently owned and operated the Hilton franchise that refused to serve ICE agents. Both Hilton and Everpeak Hospitality released statements apologizing for the incident. Everpeak Hospitality said the incident was inconsistent with its policy of “being a welcoming place for all,” and Hilton said the refusal was not “reflective of Hilton values.” After a video appeared online of the hotel continuing to refuse service to a social media user posing as someone looking for a government discount for the Department of Homeland Security, Hilton announced it was “taking immediate action to remove this hotel” from its system.
As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted highly publicized operations in Minnesota in early January 2026, a rumor spread online across multiple social media platforms (archived, archived) that a Hampton Inn hotel in Lakeville, Minnesota — a suburb of Minneapolis — refused service to ICE agents.
Images purportedly showed social media posts by the Department of Homeland Security accusing Hilton Hotels — the company that owns the Hampton brand — of a “coordinated campaign” to refuse service to DHS law enforcement:
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The screenshot circulating on social media shows a DHS post (archived) accusing Hilton of a coordinated campaign in Minneapolis to refuse service to DHS law enforcement. The post claimed that when officers attempted to book rooms using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels “maliciously” canceled their reservations.
“Hey @HiltonHotels — why did your team in Minneapolis cancel our federal law enforcement officer and agents’ reservations?” ICE wrote in a separate X post (archived) that included screenshots of the alleged emailed exchange with the franchise.
The alleged email from the hotel read:
This email is in regards to the reservation you made with the Hampton Inn Lakeville property. 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. If you are with DHS or immigration, let us know as we will have to cancel your reservation.
Please pass on this info to your coworkers that we are not allowing any immigration agents to house on our property. Reply at your earliest convenience,
[Redacted]
While we cannot verify the screenshots ICE posted authentically depicted the exchange with the Hampton Inn location or confirm the action was “coordinated” or “malicious,” as DHS claimed, we can confirm that the hotel did refuse service to ICE agents, according to the hotel’s official response.
It’s important to note that although the hotel carries the name Hilton, it is an independently operated franchise owned by a group called Everpeak Hospitality.
Hilton and Everpeak Hospitality separately released statements regarding the incident. In two X posts (archived, archived) on Jan. 5, 2026, Hilton confirmed the location’s actions were not aligned with “Hilton values.”
As of Jan. 6, 2026, Everpeak Hospitality’s website was wiped and replaced with the following message, which Hilton also pointed to:
Everpeak Hospitality Reaffirms Commitment to Welcoming All Guests & Agencies
Everpeak Hospitality has moved swiftly to address this matter as it was inconsistent with our policy of being a welcoming place for all. We are in touch with the impacted guests to ensure they are accommodated. We do not discriminate against any individuals or agencies and apologize to those impacted. We are committed to welcoming all guests and operating in accordance with brand standards, applicable laws, and our role as a professional hospitality provider.
Everpeak Hospitality
(everpeakhotels.com)
We reached out to Hilton seeking information regarding the chain’s position and a spokesperson pointed to a Jan. 6 X post (archived) that said Hilton was taking “immediate action to remove this hotel from our systems.”
The post referenced a “recent video” that raised concerns. It appeared to refer to a video (archived) posted by X user Nick Sortor in which he allegedly visited the hotel location undercover as someone looking for a government discount for DHS after Everpeak released its apology. In the video, front desk staff told him management was still not servicing ICE or DHS agents. Hilton posted the statement above on X in response to this video after DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin reposted it, claiming the incident occurred “many hours” after Everpeak Hospitality and Hilton issued statements “insisting this issue was resolved.”
We were unable to independently verify the incident shown in Sortor’s video or whether it occurred after Everpeak released its statement. It did appear to be true that Hilton removed the Lakeville location from its system following the incident; an archived page displaying the hotel’s details from 2023 was no longer available as of this writing.
It was unclear whether Everpeak Hospitality was in touch with the agents to make sure they were accommodated, as the company’s statement claimed. In a Jan. 5 X post, McLaughlin said neither DHS nor ICE had heard anything from Everpeak Hospitality. On Jan. 6, Snopes asked ICE whether it had heard back from Everpeak Hospitality since then and received the following statement attributed to McLaughlin:
We are glad to see @HiltonHotels take this step.
Discriminatory business practices targeting @dhsgov and deliberately undermining federal law enforcement are unAmerican and have real business consequences.
The spokesperson then linked McLaughlin’s X repost of the video above.
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Taija PerryCook
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