New York — Dozens of protesters were arrested Tuesday after they occupied the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn in Manhattan, accusing the hotel of harboring federal immigration officers.
The person who answered the phone at the hotel declined to comment. An email to Hilton’s press office was not returned Tuesday night. It was not immediately clear whether immigration officers were staying at the hotel, and Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the information would not be released.
The protest came as President Donald Trump’s administration implemented a large-scale immigration operation that sparked widespread opposition and led to two protests. Deaths in Minneapolis This month. Hotel chains such as Hilton They have struggled at times to navigate the conflict during the immigration crackdown and response to protests.
Protesters packed the small lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, wearing T-shirts that read “Hilton house ICE” and called on the hotel to bar federal immigration officers from staying there.
A New York Police Department spokesman said its officers ordered the crowd to leave before eventually arresting the protesters who remained in the lobby. A police spokesman said it was not immediately clear how many people had been arrested, although an Associated Press photographer witnessed dozens of people being detained and loaded onto buses outside the hotel.