When Hotels Become Front Lines - Protest Against ICE Reaches Minnesota’s Suburbs

Outside the Hampton Inn in Eagan, it was impossible to ignore what was happening that night. Activists had gathered to send a clear signal with chants and noise makers. Their demand was directed squarely at the hotel: no more lodging for federal immigration enforcement agents. “ICE out of Minnesota” was not just a chant, but an accusation aimed at a practice that has largely remained out of public view.

The protest was not directed solely at this one building. It was aimed at the quiet role private hotels play within the deportation system. Those who provide rooms, according to the logic of the demonstrators, become part of an apparatus that tears people out of their lives. These connections are meant to be exposed. Not through blockades or violence, but through public visibility.

The situation remained tense but controlled. When police arrived, the gathering later dispersed peacefully. There were no arrests, no escalation. And yet the impact was unmistakable. The noise, the presence, the persistence made clear that resistance is no longer limited to comments or petitions that have achieved little. Investigating, documenting, classic street level work, confronting the system directly, helping victims, involving the courts - this is increasingly leading to tangible successes that also affect Trump, as his defeats on December 23, 2025 at the Supreme Court demonstrated.

Eagan is not an isolated case. Across the Twin Cities, more and more hotels are coming under pressure because they serve as accommodations for immigration enforcement agents. The protests follow a clear pattern: go where deportation policy becomes concrete, where it depends on beds, keys and invoices. For those involved, the issue is responsibility, not symbolism. It is about who participates and who refuses.

What is becoming visible here is a shift in the nature of the confrontation. Deportations are no longer an abstract issue, but a conflict played out in parking lots, in front of hotel entrances and in residential neighborhoods. Minnesota is currently experiencing how sharp these fronts have become. And how determined those are who oppose them.

Resistance is growing while ICE’s approach continues to harden. Over the Christmas period, we are completely overloaded with new detention cases, coordination efforts and attempts to provide concrete help to detained people as quickly as possible. What is emerging is not a temporary state of emergency, but a long term conflict. One that is not only being fought within the United States, but is accompanied by international silence and a foreign policy that is increasingly oriented toward military escalation. Both reinforce each other.

While deportations, raids and detentions inside the country are being normalized, international attention continues to drift away and is often focused on putting Trump in the foreground, while forgetting to offer solutions. One expert lines up after another, without ever having experienced this firsthand, delivering wise words from television studios. The resistance remains in the shadows, as do the many people and organizations that are literally fighting against this around the clock. Yet many people here are fighting day after day for the rule of law, for dignity and for a democratic self understanding. This struggle is not a remote American matter. It is of central importance for all those countries in which right wing populist movements are gaining influence, including in Europe. Anyone who believes America is far away underestimates the impact of what is happening here. Whether authoritarian thinking continues to advance or is pushed back will be decided in no small part in this very place. Holding the line is arduous, dangerous, exhausting and prolonged. But this is precisely the point at which it is decided whether democracy is defended or surrendered.