Late Sunday night on University Avenue in Minneapolis, a crowd converged outside the Home2 Suites after word spread that federal immigration officers were staying there. The demonstration quickly escalated, and by multiple accounts it turned destructive: windows were smashed, graffiti appeared on the building's facade and people tried to push toward the lobby. State and federal officers poured into the area, chemical irritants were used and several people were detained before the street finally calmed down.
Officials' account
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety said in a Minnesota Department of Public Safety post that the Minnesota State Patrol and the Department of Natural Resources were called in to help Minneapolis police respond to damage at the Home2 Suites. According to the agency, federal agents later deployed chemical irritants to push the crowd back. Once the federal officers took over the scene, state troopers and DNR personnel were "no longer on scene," the post said.
Video and eyewitness accounts
Bystander video and photos captured a heavy law enforcement presence outside the hotel along with thick clouds of gas, as reported by The Minnesota Daily. The outlet noted that buses and vans of officers were parked at a nearby Discovery Lot and reported that tear gas was set off as officers secured a perimeter around 9:50 p.m.
Additional social media clips, compiled by several outlets including a report from Meaww, show Border Patrol agents holding less lethal launchers and deploying gas near the hotel entrance as they held the line outside the doors.
Why protesters gathered
The confrontation at the Home2 Suites unfolded amid ongoing unrest after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent on Jan. 24, an incident that has triggered large demonstrations across Minneapolis. A federal surge of immigration officers in the city, dubbed Operation Metro Surge by critics, has repeatedly drawn protesters into the streets, as documented by The Washington Post. The Pretti shooting, combined with an earlier deadly encounter, has further heightened tensions around hotels and street protests where federal officers are present.
Legal and political fallout
Those hotel flashpoints are playing out against a larger political fight over whether local hotels should host federal officers at all. The U.S. General Services Administration recently removed a Minnesota Hilton property from federal lodging programs after the hotel canceled room reservations for ICE personnel, the GSA said in a news release.
At the same time, state prosecutors and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension have been pressing for broader access to evidence in the Pretti case, and a federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to preserve evidence, according to CBS News. Those moves have intensified political criticism of federal tactics in Minneapolis and fueled calls for clearer rules on where officers can stay and how their operations are communicated to local officials.
What remains unclear
One key detail is still unsettled. It remains uncertain whether federal agents were actually lodged at the Home2 Suites on the night protesters showed up. Reporting from the scene has included conflicting accounts, along with images of people both inside and outside the lobby.
Local journalists and officials say multiple investigations are underway and caution that social media clips and eyewitness stories are still being vetted as authorities work to assemble a clear timeline, according to reporting by AP.
