DHS Blasts Anti-ICE Protesters Sharing List Of Hotels Allegedly Hosting Agents

Authored by Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Jan. 11 that federal agents in Minnesota were put at risk after a list of their alleged hotel locations circulated online.

“Revealing their locations puts them at enormous risk of retaliation from these monsters,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement to The Epoch Times.

Sunrise Twin Cities, a youth-led group against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, is publishing a weekly list of hotels where they suspect that immigration agents are staying.

The Minneapolis-based group has spent weeks urging locals to hold “noise demonstrations” outside hotels, hoping that management will become fed up, kick out the agents, and cancel future reservations.

DHS would not confirm or deny the accuracy of the list.

“We would never confirm where our officers are staying and put their lives in jeopardy, that would be insane,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin said these lists of locations can be harmful, as officers face a surge of assaults, vehicular attacks, and death threats, many of which have already been directed at the agent involved in a deadly altercation with a protester last week.

The hotel demonstration on Jan. 9, hosted by Sunrise Twin Cities, resulted in 30 people being detained after an unlawful assembly was declared outside the Canopy Hotel.

“I felt like I was in ‘The Purge,’” a Canopy Hotel staffer told The Epoch Times on Jan. 10.

A staffer from the Canopy Hotel told The Epoch Times that he felt like he was in a horror movie when anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters tried to barge into the building in Minneapolis on Jan. 9, 2026. Jacki Thrapp/The Epoch Times

The Canopy Hotel was up and running on Jan. 10 with seemingly no signs of damage inside or broken windows outside.

But that was not the case for the Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, just a few blocks away from the Canopy Hotel.

The Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel had damage worth approximately $6,000 done to windows from graffiti on Jan. 9.

By the afternoon on Jan. 10, the graffiti was removed, and fencing and “no trespassing” signs were scattered across the property and surrounding area.

Fences and “no trespassing” signs were placed outside the Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel in Minneapolis on Jan. 10, 2026. Jacki Thrapp/The Epoch Times

A large number of police officers were present both inside and outside of the hotel on the night of Jan. 10.

The hotel bar inside was also standing by to close early if another round of protesters decided to brave the 20-degree-Fahrenheit temperatures to hold additional noise demonstrations.

The anti-ICE hotel demonstrations—and repeated phone calls to front desks to demand that they cancel reservations from agents—also had an effect at a Hilton-affiliated hotel in the Minneapolis area.

“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,” an email from a hotel employee shared by DHS in an X post on Jan. 5 reads.

“If you are with DHS or immigration, let us know as we will have to cancel your reservation.”

Protesters face off with federal officers in front of the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis on Jan. 9, 2026. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

DHS slammed the cancellations.

“This is UNACCEPTABLE,” the department posted on X.

On Jan. 6, Hilton said it would sever its ties with the hotel. The Lakeville, Minnesota, hotel is now listed as “permanently closed” online.

Hilton did not respond by publication time to a request for comment.