Minneapolis hospitality industry complains ICE is causing tourism problems as agitators break into hotels, cause midnight noise protests

The Minneapolis hospitality industry is blaming federal immigration authorities for declining tourism and business disruptions, even as far-left agitators have broken into hotels and staged overnight noise protests that have disturbed neighborhoods and guests.

Meet Minneapolis, the city’s tourism and convention bureau, sent a survey earlier this month to partners, including restaurants, hotels, retail businesses, and others in the industry. According to the results, 90 percent of respondents said they had been impacted by federal activity in the city. The survey comes amid Operation Metro Surge, which began in December and has resulted in roughly 3,000 federal immigration officers operating in the Minneapolis area.

“[Respondents] overwhelmingly had a sentiment that ICE’s expanded presence in the city was causing this harm and that the best thing for these businesses would be for Operation Metro Surge to end,” said Meet Minneapolis senior vice president of destination branding and strategy Courtney Ries, according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mike Logan said some businesses have seen dramatic losses.

“We've been hearing of business decline of 50 to 80% of revenue on any given day,” Logan said. “I'm not sure it's not worse for some organizations, particularly as they lock their doors, and some have completely shut down operations, waiting to see what will happen over the course of next week or two.”

Logan added that the federal operation is damaging the region’s economy.  “As currently conducted, Operation Metro Surge is undermining the economic vitality of our region by destabilizing our workforce, disrupting commerce, and jeopardizing the progress Minneapolis has worked so hard to rebuild in recent years,” he said. “No region — especially one as interconnected and diverse as ours — can thrive under sustained disruption.”

While much of the blame has been directed at federal agents, far-left activists have carried out actions that have directly affected hotels and surrounding communities. Last week, rioters were arrested outside a SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Maple Grove, Minnesota, where Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino was allegedly staying. The night prior, activists targeted another hotel where they believed ICE agents were staying. Multiple arrests had been made.

Video from the incidents showed crowds gathering near hotel entrances, banging objects, and chanting as part of a “noise demo” to disrupt both guests and nearby neighborhoods.

Some Minnesota hotel workers and activist organizations have openly supported such tactics. A previous report by The Post Millennial noted that Sunrise Movement executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay said her organization has been deliberately targeting hotels as part of its opposition to ICE operations.

"We have started having workers start requesting noise demonstrations—we call them wide awakes—start requesting wide awakes in the middle of the night,”  Shiney-Ajay said during a training hosted by the Women’s March last week. “We've had reports of ICE agents leaving after our noise demonstrations. We've had multiple hotels report to us that they have quietly decided to kick ICE out.”

She added, "These are super simple. We just show up in the middle of the night. We make a bunch of noise until, and you know, until the police ask us to leave, and then we leave. They're peaceful. They're non-violent. There's no property destruction, nothing like that. It's just about making so much noise that we are physically costing the hotel money and time, and we're waking ICE up as well."

Shiney-Ajay also said activists have been making hotel reservations and canceling them at the last minute to financially pressure hotels that house ICE agents.