Hilton's ICE Age

I'm in Minneapolis this weekend reporting on how hotels handled the federal government's Operation Metro Surge. And I genuinely had to stop and think about which tense to use when writing that sentence.

On Thursday, U.S. border czar Tom Homan said ICE agents — whose presence peaked at around 3,000 — would begin leaving the state immediately, with the full withdrawal expected next week.

It’s been an extraordinary moment to be a hotelier in Minnesota. Rarely do hotels outside conflict zones find themselves pulled into the political storm of the moment.

This time, though, they were at the center of it. Hotels became the focus of protests for housing ICE, endured noise disruptions, sustained physical damage, and saw demonstrators inside and out. ICE agents, meanwhile, weren’t just staying at the properties — they were actively targeting the properties’ employees.

Hilton found itself at the center of the controversy after cutting ties with a Minneapolis Hampton Inn that declined ICE bookings.

Last week, the activist group Sunrise DC showed up at a home owned by Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta's house in Arlington, Virginia. They held banners reading "Hilton Houses ICE" and posted a video on social media showing at least a dozen protestors shouting "ICE out now." 

"We're in the hospitality business," Nassetta said in an interview published in the Washington Business Journal. "We don't call the balls and strikes. We accept all. If you start calling balls and strikes, types of people, that's a very dangerous place to go."

While hotels navigate political firestorms, the U.S. saw more of the same to start 2026 — another substantial drop in visitors from Canada.  

The number of Canadian residents returning from the U.S. by car fell 26.8% in January from last year, according to figures released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, marking the 12th straight month of declines. Canadian-resident return trips by air from the U.S. dropped 17.8%.

As travel from Canada to the U.S. took a nosedive, domestic travel across Canada surged. Travel within the country by Canadian residents was up 9% in the third quarter of 2025. The country's eight largest airports all reported higher domestic volumes. Canada's hotel industry recorded its strongest year on record in 2025.

Yes, the Canadians are still pissed.