Hilton Is ICE Infrastructure

ICE Breakers is a mass‑membership campaign of the Grassroots Activist International Association. We exist to dismantle the civilian infrastructure that allows ICE to operate in our communities.

ICE does not function on its own. It relies on banks, airlines, tech platforms, and hotels to move agents, stage operations, and normalize its presence. Hilton provides that support. This campaign is built to end it.

We are launching this effort on the ground in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Portland. Cities with organized bases, deep public opposition to ICE, and the capacity to apply sustained pressure. Our objective is simple and winnable: force Hilton to stop allowing ICE agents to stay in Hilton‑branded properties.

Our Demand

Hilton must adopt and enforce a corporate policy that prohibits ICE and related immigration enforcement agencies from staying at or using Hilton‑branded hotels.

Secondary demand:

• Transparency: Public disclosure of enforcement‑related bookings and policies.

Why Hilton

In January 2026, Hilton Worldwide made national headlines after it stripped a Minnesota Hampton Inn franchise of its Hilton branding because that hotel refused to provide rooms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents. Even after those agents tried to book at government rates. A viral video showed hotel staff telling federal personnel they would not be allowed to stay there, and in response Hilton announced it was removing the property from its system and reinforcing its standards of “welcoming all guests.” This episode reveals Hilton’s true priorities: protecting its corporate interests and willingness to collaborate with state enforcement, even when confronted with grassroots resistance. Hilton chose to protect a system that deploys armed agents into our cities and neighborhoods, including into communities of immigrants, rather than support a franchise that refused to serve those agents. Many in the public including people canceling their Hilton Honors accounts and calling for boycott see this as Hilton siding with militarized enforcement over community safety and dignity.

ICE agents routinely operate in the shadows of federal enforcement deployments. They stay in hotels when detention centers, facilities, or official barracks are distant or over capacity, using civilian lodging as staging grounds for raids and enforcement operations. These are places where agents prepare, rest, and organize before returning to carry out sweeps, often in communities of color or immigrant families. While specific individual disappearances or harms connected to hotel stays have not been publicly documented, the fact remains: providing housing and civilian infrastructure to enforcement agents enables a system that terrorizes communities and tears families apart. (This is a movement position based on the role of enforcement agents, not a proven factual claim about individual disappearances.)

Hilton’s actions in Minnesota, choosing to punish a hotel that resisted housing these agents makes clear that the corporation views its role not as a neutral business, but as part of the civilian support network for state enforcement. That’s why ICE Breakers is targeting Hilton: because their business model normalizes and enables the very infrastructure ICE relies on to operate in our neighborhoods.

This campaign holds Hilton accountable not only for that specific incident, but for the broader reality that corporate hospitality infrastructure can and does support a federal enforcement apparatus that destabilizes and harms communities nationwide. By forcing Hilton to publicly cut ties with ICE use of their properties and establish a policy banning enforcement housing, we strike at the corporate backbone that helps make raids, detentions, and deportations possible.

Our Strategy // How We Force Hilton to Change

This campaign is designed to be persistent, public, and costly for Hilton while remaining disciplined, nonviolent, and lawful. The goal is not to convince Hilton morally. The goal is to change Hilton’s cost–benefit calculation until maintaining ICE access is more expensive than ending it.

1. Mobilizing Thousands of People Repeatedly, Not Once

Why repetition matters
Corporations can absorb one-off protests. They cannot absorb predictable, recurring disruption that becomes part of their operating environment.

How this works in practice

• Weekly or biweekly actions at Hilton properties in LA, SD, and Portland

• Rotating locations so pressure feels city-wide, not isolated

• The same core message every time: Hilton is ICE infrastructure

• Clear expectations that actions continue until policy changes not until attention fades

Strategic effect

• Creates internal fatigue for Hilton management

• Forces local managers to escalate concerns upward

• Signals to executives that this is not a temporary PR issue

Consistency turns protest into operational pressure.

2. Targeting Profit Centers and Brand Reputation

Hilton’s real vulnerabilities

• Occupancy rates

• Group and institutional bookings

• Loyalty programs and repeat customers

• Brand perception in “values-driven” cities

How pressure is applied

• Public-facing actions at hotels that affect guest experience.

• Consumer actions (policy-compliant reservation and cancellation) that create booking instability

• Messaging aimed at guests, conference planners, and institutional clients—not just executives

• Visual documentation of cancellations, protests, and boycotts circulating online

Strategic effect

• Lost revenue is measurable

• Brand risk becomes visible to investors and partners

• Hilton’s PR team is forced into response mode instead of silence

This is about making ICE ties interfere with Hilton’s core business model.

3. Escalating Pressure Across Multiple Fronts at the Same Time

Why multi-front pressure matters
Corporations are built to compartmentalize problems. Single-lane campaigns are easy to contain. Multi-front campaigns are not.

Simultaneous pressure lanes

• Street actions: visible, recurring protests

• Consumer lane: cancellations, boycotts, loyalty pressure

• Institutional lane: pressure on organizations that book Hilton

• Political lane: city governments, tourism boards, public agencies

• Narrative lane: social media, earned media, public framing

All of these move together.

Strategic effect

• No single department inside Hilton can “solve” the problem

• Legal, PR, operations, and investor relations all feel pressure at once

• Internal debate shifts from “How do we wait this out?” to “How do we make it stop?”

4. Making Support for ICE Bad for Business

The core calculation
Hilton will change when:

Continuing to house ICE creates more financial, reputational, and operational risk than ending it.

How we tip the scale

• Normalize the idea that ICE presence drives customers away

• Make Hilton synonymous with ICE infrastructure in key markets

• Show that resistance is organized, not symbolic

• Demonstrate that the campaign will escalate, not dissipate

What “winning” looks like

• Hilton issues a corporate policy barring ICE use of properties

• Enforcement is required at the franchise level

• Hilton publicly distances its brand from immigration enforcement housing

This is not about total moral purity. It is about forcing a line to be drawn.

Why This Strategy Works

• Hilton has changed policies before under sustained pressure

• Hospitality brands are especially sensitive to reputation in progressive cities

• ICE depends on civilian infrastructure. Cutting that support matters

• ICE Breakers already has organized bases capable of sustained action

This campaign is not speculative. It is designed to grind until something breaks, and to do so in a way that protects participants while maximizing leverage.

We organize large, visible actions at Hilton properties using public space.

What this looks like:

• Recurring protests timed to peak business hours

• Loud, high‑energy demonstrations that cannot be ignored

• Leafleting guests with clear messaging: “This hotel houses ICE. You don’t have to.”

• Rotating locations so pressure is felt city‑wide

Consistency beats spectacle. Weekly actions build power.

2) Consumer Action: Reserve, Then Cancel (Policy‑Compliant)

Supporters make fully refundable, policy‑compliant reservations at Hilton properties and cancel within stated refund windows as a public political statement.

Why this matters:

• Creates real, trackable lost revenue

• Disrupts booking forecasts and occupancy planning

• Demonstrates organized consumer power at scale

Public message:

“We reserved rooms. Hilton chose ICE. We canceled.”

All participation follows Hilton’s terms. No misrepresentation. No fraud.

3) Social Media Pressure

We run a coordinated, movement‑led media campaign that Hilton cannot outrun.

Campaign tags:

• #Hiltonhasbloodonitshands

• #nosleepforice

• #NoRoomsForICE

Content includes:

• Protest footage from LA, SD, and Portland

• Reservation and cancellation screenshots

• City‑by‑city escalation graphics

• Short explainers: why Hilton is a target, how pressure works

• Member voices: why they’re canceling and showing up

Tone: confident, relentless, unapologetic.

4) Tertiary Targets (Where Hilton Really Feels It)

Hilton moves when pressure spreads beyond individual hotels.

We target:

• Institutional clients: conferences, universities, unions, NGOs

• City governments & tourism boards: ethical lodging standards and public booking policies

• Corporate leadership: executives and board members, publicly and persistently

Goal: isolate Hilton until maintaining ICE ties becomes untenable.

Timeline of Escalation

Who We Are

ICE Breakers is a membership‑based campaign. We are funded by our members and our community. Not corporations, not governments, not wealthy private interests.

That independence allows us to be clear, disciplined, and relentless. We have forced major corporations to cut ties with ICE before. Hilton is next.

Take Action

• Sign the petition!

• Join an action in LA, San Diego, or Portland

• Cancel a Hilton reservation and share why

• Bring your organization into the campaign

ICE relies on corporate support. Together, we shut it down.

I’ve written the full campaign web page and put it into the canvas so you can read, edit, and iterate on it directly.