Minneapolis city council renews liquor licenses for hotels amid ICE safety concerns

The Minneapolis City Council voted 8–5 Feb. 19 to renew the liquor licenses for the Canopy by Hilton and the Depot Renaissance hotels on 3rd Street, overriding concerns from hotel workers who say the presence of federal immigration agents has made their workplace unsafe.

The vote came after Amy Lingo, License and Consumer Services Manager at the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development department (CPED), told council members the city had no legal grounds to withhold the licenses.

“There is no good cause to deny these renewals and I’m unable to recommend any conditions to condense on the liquor licenses as well,” said Lingo.

Newly elected Council Members Pearll Warren, Jason Whiting and Soren Stevenson joined Jamal Osman, Michael Rainville, LaTrisha Vetaw and Linea Palmisano in voting to renew. Council Members Robin Wonsley, Aurin Chowdhury, Elliott Payne and Jason Chavez voted against renewal.

The decision followed a charged committee meeting on Feb. 17, where members of Unite Here Local 17 presented testimony from hotel workers who said their coworkers were afraid to speak publicly for fear of retaliation. The workers described a workplace transformed since ICE agents began staying at both properties, with management boarding up kitchen windows, restricting staff movement and withholding information about who was occupying the hotel.

Geoffrey Paquette, an organizer with Unite Here 17, read a statement from an anonymous Depot worker who said she first noticed something was wrong in January.

“As we were walking through the parking lot I noticed several cars with out-of-state license plates and bars on the inside of the cars,” Paquette read. “When I came into work, I told my coworker what I had seen in the parking lot, and said ‘I believed they were ICE agents.’ My co-worker told me the manager had previously told them that the hotel management did not tell us that ICE was staying in the hotel because they did not want to create a sense of panic.”

Management at both hotels confirmed to CPED that they had a policy of keeping some staff separate from federal immigration clientele. Thursday, Lingo described those conversations as an attempt to manage worker concerns.

“The conversations we had revolved around how the attempts were to help mitigate anxiety by keeping staff separate from the clientele,” said Lingo.

But workers said the effects went well beyond reassurance. Paquette read testimony describing how the restaurant windows were covered with paper during the agents’ first week at the property.

“They covered the windows with papers so that no one could see the workers who are working back-of-house as a safety measure. My manager said it was for our safety,” Paquette read.

Workers also said their job duties were changed after management deemed parts of the hotel unsafe.

“Since ICE started staying at the hotel my manager told me that we would no longer be required to bring these items to the event rooms because it wasn’t safe for us to be in the public area of the hotel,” Paquette read.

The testimony said that other daily routines were also restricted.

“The area where we can do our laundry is on the other side of the hotel, my manager told me it was not safe to go to the other side of the hotel, because that is where the ICE agents were staying,” Paquette read.

Unite Here Local 17 worker Uriel Perez Espinosa told committee members he had spoken with a woman he identified only as X, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation.

“Many of us have seen ICE agents staying in the hotel. They park their cars on the ramp. They wear camouflage clothing. They are here at the Renaissance in the Depot Hotel,” said Espinosa.

Among the most alarming disclosures at the Council meeting was a report that agents had left unsecured firearms in hotel rooms that housekeeping staff entered unannounced. Lingo confirmed the concern had been raised with her office.

“I believe the quote was that the agents would occasionally forget to put the DO NOT DISTURB on the door, and then house cleaning would go in and they would be unsecured,” Lingo told council members.

Photos obtained by the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder and submitted to committee members last Tuesday reportedly show a California gray Dodge Durango parked at the Renaissance Inn on Feb. 15, three days after Border Czar Tom Homan announced an end to Operation Metro Surge. Activists with the community monitoring group DefrostMN, which maintains a crowdsourced database of license plates observed near federal immigration operations, reported that the vehicle, plate 8SKS632, was last seen at the Whipple Federal Building on Feb. 8 at 8:52 a.m., 9:42 a.m. and 10:05 a.m. Observers also reported witnessing convoys of at least three vehicles with tinted windows carrying agents in tactical gear.

Councilmember Aisha Chughtai commended workers for coming forward despite the personal risk.

“I want to thank sincerely, the very courageous and brave hotel workers who brought this issue to our attention,” said Chughtai, acknowledging “the fears, the dangerous health and public safety concerns that they witnessed knowing that it would cost them their job.”

Graduate Hotel General Manager Michael Berk withdrew his application ahead of a City Council vote on whether to deny his appointment to the Stadium Village Advisory Board. Student activists have staged noise demonstrations at the Graduate by Hilton on University Avenue near the University of Minnesota, following social media posts claiming the hotel was housing federal agents. Protesters faced multiple arrests, including 67 for unlawful assembly and 12 for disorderly conduct or property damage.

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