Hilton Hotels removes Minneapolis hotel after DHS, ICE ban

Hilton Hotels said Tuesday that it will sever ties with a franchise hotel in the Minneapolis area after a new video showed a desk clerk there refusing to book rooms for a person claiming to be a Department of Homeland Security agent.

Hilton’s statement came a day after the company that owns the location, Everpeak Hospitality, apologized for canceling a prior reservation for real DHS agents because of their work on immigration enforcement, and said that such a ban was not consistent with its policy of “being a welcoming place for all.”

“The independent hotel owner had assured us that they had fixed this problem and published a message confirming this,” Hilton said in a statement Tuesday on the social media site X, which was also sent by a spokesperson to CNBC.

“A recent video clearly raises concerns that they are not meeting our standards and values,” Hilton said. “As such, we are taking immediate action to remove this hotel from our systems.”

“Hilton is — and has always been — a welcoming place for all,” the statement said. “We are also engaging with our all of our franchisees to reinforce the standards we hold them to across our system to help ensure this does not happen again.”

The statement was posted hours after a tweet by the conservative independent journalist Nick Sortor, which contained a video of him visiting the Hampton Inn by Hilton Lakeview Minneapolis on Monday night — hours after Everpeak issued its apology — and trying to book 10 rooms for what Sortor said were DHS employees.

“So, we’re not accepting people from Immigration, ICE agents, DHS into our property,” the clerk said. “That’s just our management, ownership.”

When Sortor said he thought the policy had changed “today” — Monday — the clerk replied, “I just talked to the owner of the building, and he didn’t say there had been any changes.”

“Yeah, it’s just policy,” the clerk said.

The clerk, who also said “I’m new here,” then repeated that he had not been informed of any policy changes, and he offered to speak to the owner.

When the clerk returned, he said he had been unable to reach anyone in authority because of the late hour.

Sortor posted his video on X on Tuesday morning.

“BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: I went into the Minnesota Hilton who ‘apologized’ for banning DHS agents, and EXPOSED them for CONTINUING to ban DHS agents,” Sortor wrote.

“REVOKE THEIR LICENSE, HILTON, OR IT’S GOING TO COST YOU DEARLY. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED. This is an INCREDIBLY dumb battle to choose!” Sortor wrote.

CNBC attempted to reach someone at the Hampton Inn Lakeview Minneapolis on Tuesday morning, but no one answered calls…