Sunrise Movement Executive Director Aru Shiney-Ajay said in a Monday night training that agitators want to show Hilton “they have more to lose from working with ICE than they have to gain.”
In a training hosted by the Women’s March on Monday night, Sunrise Movement Executive Director Aru Shiney-Ajay revealed how her organization is targeting "the logistical ways that ICE operates," including through actions against Hilton hotels and the car rental service Enterprise. This comes as hotels in the Twin Cities area have been the subject of increasing violence over their alleged housing of federal agents.
"The way that I think about this is that this is the offensive part of an ICE campaign, and it's a little bit—there's a lot of different types of corporate campaigns, the Enterprise and Hilton campaigns really focus on some of the logistical ways that ICE operates. It sort of comes from the logic of when ICE is here, they need places to sleep, they need places to eat, they need ways to get around. What are ways that we can physically interrupt the ways that they do that so that we can kick them out," she told attendees of the "Corporate Accountability" breakout session.
She said that the campaigns to show up at night at hotels where ICE was staying and making noise with the intent of disrupting the agents have been "really effective."
"We have started having workers start requesting noise demonstrations—we call them wide awakes—start requesting wide awakes in the middle of the night. 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, because they don't want to say it publicly so they don't get backlash, but they've told us they've decided to kick ICE out. We've even had two hotels, we’ve gotten word, not from them, but through the grapevine, they specifically refuse to house ICE because of our noise demonstrations," she said.
"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."
She said the group has also been exploring "other tactics," including making numerous reservations at hotels and then canceling at the last minute, so that hotels start actually losing money if they house ICE." She also said that the group is working on a "petition and campaign with city council to revoke the liquor licenses of hotels that are housing ICE as a creative way," in addition to directing calls to those hotels and review bombing them.
In regard to the liquor license petition being sent to the city council, a post on Sunrise Movement Twin Cities’ Instagram states, "ICE agents are drunk on power. They do not deserve the privilege of getting drunk on the backs of our local workers." The group notes that multiple hotels’ liquor licenses are up for renewal, and city council has the power to deny them.
Shiney-Ajay continued, "We’ve zeroed in on Hilton because a lot of ICE agents are staying at the Hilton, but also because one Hilton decided to kick ICE out, and Hilton corporate actually reacted by taking away their name, the Hilton name, from the hotel, and it really cost them financially."
She said the agitators want to show the hotel chain "they have more to lose from working with ICE than they have to gain."
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