Although this incident occurred on 9 January 2026, Muir Analytics intentionally delayed publication pending additional video review and open-source reporting. Subsequent developments in the US political violence environment—including multiple assassination attempts, attacks on political figures, and increasing ideological extremism—have only reinforced the analytical value of this case.
Viewed in retrospect, the Minneapolis hotel incidents were not isolated acts of disorder. Rather, they formed part of a broader pattern in which politically motivated actors targeted locations associated with government activities, whether those associations were real or merely perceived. For the hotel sector, the event remains an important warning regarding reputational targeting, crowd mobilization, and politically driven violence.
Muir Analytics previously highlighted this risk during an ASIS presentation on hotel violence in November 2018, warning that hotels could become targets because of their real or perceived connections to government, law enforcement, political actors, and other controversial activities.
Bottom line up front
- Muir Analytics has predicted such hotel violence—and worse—in the US via multiple briefings and articles.
- Hotels should be considered operational targets in anti-ICE activism.
- The Minneapolis incidents reflect tactical success, and a partial strategic success/partial strategic failure for activists.
- Crowd violence at hotels is organized, escalating, and increasingly capable of breaching defenses.
- Hotel security narrowly prevented catastrophic outcomes—but margins were thin.
- This is a durable trend with material security and insurance implications.
- This threat profile exposes hotels to high-severity losses in the SRCC–terrorism gray zone, where policy wording, exclusions, and sublimits will determine whether claims are paid or litigated.
On 9 January 2026, far-left activists protested and harassed two Minneapolis hotels—the Canopy by Hilton and the Depot Renaissance Hotel, a Marriott property—because they believed federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were staying there. It remains unclear whether ICE agents were actually lodged at either hotel on 9 January.
The Canopy by Hilton is a four-star property located at Minneapolis Mill District, 708 S 3rd Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415.
Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, The Depot, is also a four-star located at 225 3rd Avenue South (often written as 225 3rd Ave S) Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401.
Protesters confronted these hotels with the aim of pressuring management to evict ICE agents. The demonstrations occurred amid broader unrest after a US ICE agent fatally shot a Minneapolis woman on 7 January, which has sparked large protests in the city and nationwide.
Canopy Hilton
At around 8:00pm, on 9 January, with crowds in the hundreds, written and video reporting from FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul and The Gateway Pundit show protesters gathering and blocking traffic outside the hotels, creating a continuous barrage of noise from yelling, car horns, whistles, and other loud devices. Protesters told local media there would be “no peace” until ICE agents left Minneapolis.
Video on social media shows activists systematically blocking roads around the Canopy Hilton, with multiple participants wearing yellow safety vests. In military and law-enforcement terms, this constitutes methodical target isolation. The tactic was clearly intended to deny access to law enforcement, counter-protesters, hotel guests, and anyone who might interfere with the mob’s actions.
Additional footage shows the crowd deploying commercial-grade fireworks, further escalating the harassment of the hotel and the people inside.
By 8:30 pm, the crowd turned violent. Police arrived on scene after callers reported a “belligerent and possibly intoxicated woman” had driven her vehicle onto the hotel’s sidewalk, says Fox9News. Additionally, the mob threw “snow, ice, and rocks at officers, police vehicles, and other vehicles in the roadway.”
Minneapolis police were called after witnesses reported a confrontational, possibly intoxicated woman driving her vehicle onto a hotel sidewalk, though officers found no visible damage when they arrived. Officers later learned she had parked and then entered a nearby hotel. During this period, parts of the crowd began throwing snow, ice, and rocks at officers, police vehicles, and other vehicles in the roadway, contributing to an escalation of unrest.
As the situation deteriorated, video footage shows the Minneapolis police chief arriving at the Canopy by Hilton, only to be driven out of the area by hostile and intimidating protesters who confronted and threatened him and his police protection detail.
At another point, the crowd assailed a small hotel security picket line positioned outside the front doors, engaging in pushing, shoving, spitting, and verbal death taunts. Video shows at least one protester, wearing what appeared to be traditional Muslim attire, attempting to restrain fellow rioters and prevent them from breaching the security line and forcing entry into the hotel.
At another point, the mob attempted to force entry through a side door. Six hotel security personnel, several wearing Securitas insignia, physically resisted the surge as protesters pushed toward the entrance. Video captures rioters shouting profanities and incitements, including:
- “Fuck you!” (repeatedly)
- “You’re no better than them!” (referring to ICE)
- “Keep pushing!”—an explicit call to continue forcing entry into the hotel
During the attempted breach, rioters threw objects and doused the entrance area with what appeared to be water while continuing to force their way into the hotel. The security team had chairs or similar items stacked behind them, apparently improvised as ad hoc barriers to help hold the line and keep the crowd from forcing entry.
By approximately 10:45 p.m., FOX 9 reported that police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly, issued dispersal orders, and began arresting individuals engaged in violence or refusing to leave the area. By this stage, video analysis indicates the crowd had grown to approximately 1,000 people. Thirty individuals were arrested outside the Canopy hotel.
Depot Renaissance Hotel
Similar to the Canopy incident, video shows rioters—many of them masked—making a limited penetration into the Depot Renaissance Hotel, confined to a closed, glass-enclosed foyer leading into the lobby. Either because the interior doors were locked, or because the activists at this location were less aggressive than those at the Canopy, the mob did not press the incursion further.
Protesters shouted, “no justice, no peace,” used noisemakers, and banged on furniture inside the foyer in an intimidating manner. However, the sustained physical violence and breach attempts observed at the Canopy were absent at this stage of the Renaissance incident.
Additional video shows a large, hostile crowd outside the main lobby of the Depot Renaissance Hotel spray-painting anti-ICE graffiti on the hotel’s windows, while a small number of rioters briefly penetrated the lobby and overturned furniture. Hotel security is visible securing the lobby and forcing the intruders back out, preventing further damage or escalation.
On 11 January, FOX 9 reported that the Depot Renaissance Hotel sustained approximately $6,000 in damage and graffiti.
Background
The protests at the Canopy by Hilton and the Depot Renaissance Hotel were rooted in public outrage over an ICE agent’s fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman on 7 January 2026. On that morning in south Minneapolis, 37-year-old Renée Nicole Good was shot and killed by a US ICE agent during a federal enforcement operation. Video and eyewitness accounts show Good in her SUV as ICE agents approached.
ICE critics say the shooting was cold blooded murder. ICE and its supporters say the driver, motivated by politics, engaged in attempted vehicular homicide, and was in the process of fleeing the scene after being lawfully ordered to stop and exit the vehicle by police.
Good’s death sparked widespread protests in Minneapolis and beyond, with left-leaning public officials, community leaders, and activists condemning the shooting and ICE’s presence in the city.
In December 2025, the Sunrise Movement Twin Cities, a far-left activist group, protested ICE personnel allegedly housed at a Homewood Suites by Hilton. Sahan Journal quoted one activist as saying the group deliberately targeted businesses, arguing that certain hotels were “collaborating with ICE” and “making money from ICE.”
In June 2025, during the Los Angeles “No Kings” riots, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and allied groups blocked highways, clashed with police and the National Guard, looted businesses, committed arson, and harassed or damaged multiple hotels. Targets included the Hilton Hotel and the DoubleTree by Hilton, where rioters smashed a large front window and would likely have breached the hotel but for a police picket line positioned inside the lobby.
Multiple senior politicians have publicly demonized ICE and DHS using dehumanizing rhetoric, according to reporting by USA Today, Fox News, and others, providing ideological motivation for activist harassment and violence.
- Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota, 2025 commencement address at the University of Minnesota Law School, called ICE “modern‑day Gestapo.”
- Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, referred to ICE as taking “authoritarian actions by an authoritarian government” and that they were Nazi-like “secret police” and Nazi‑style forces.
- Karen Bass, Los Angeles mayor, said DHS/ICE were carrying out a “reign of terror.”
- Hank Johnson, House Representative from Georgia, said, “when I refer to what terrorism looks like, this is it.”
- Ilhan Omar, House Representative from Minnesota, said, “They are no longer an agency—they are a terrorist organization. Their mission is intimidation. Their weapon is fear. Their victims are immigrant families and communities of color.”
- Peggy Flanagan, Democratic lieutenant governor of Minnesota, said, “show up and put our bodies on the line” to stop ICE.
Furthermore, multiple organized attacks resembling terrorist-style raids and ambushes have targeted ICE facilities and personnel in recent years, including:
- 4 July 2025, Alvarado, TX: Eleven attackers assaulted an ICE facility. Equipment reportedly included body armor, AR-15-style rifles, and pyrotechnics. The assailants were subsequently charged with terrorism-related offenses.
- 4 July 2025, Portland, OR: More than 100 individuals attacked an ICE facility. Equipment included blinding laser pointers and bolt cutters. Attackers breached the outer perimeter fence and physically assaulted law enforcement personnel.
- 7 July 2025, McAllen, TX: A lone assailant conducted an armed ambush against an ICE facility. Equipment included an AR-15-style rifle, additional ammunition, and tactical gear.
- 8 November 2025, Little Village, Chicago, IL: Unknown assailants conducted a drive-by shooting targeting ICE agents.
As an aside, says ABC News, the 4 July Alvarado attack unit had flags and flyers touting “resist fascism, fight oligarchy,” and “fight ice terror with class war…free all political prisoners” echoing the dehumanizing sentiment of the above-mentioned politicians.
Multiple news outlets and activist sites (ABC News, Communist Party USA, Fox News, and the New York Post) report that a range of far-left organizations actively organize, train, and deploy members to monitor, track, protest, and harass ICE and other law enforcement operations across the U.S., including groups mobilizing in the aftermath of the Minneapolis vehicular assault/shooting and the subsequent hotel protests. They include, but are not limited to:
- Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC)
- Minnesota Interfaith Coalition on Immigration (ICOM)
- Community Organizing Pública y Acción Local
- Indivisible (via its local Twin Cites chapter, a movement to defeat the “Trump agenda”)
- Democratic Socialists of America
- Party for Socialism and Liberation
- The People’s Forum
- Freedom Road Socialist Organization
- ICE Watch
- Racial Justice Network
- Immigrant Defense Network
- Twin Cities Club, Communist Party of the USA, “calls on all popular forces” to protests and drive out ICE.
- CAIR Minnesota—Involved in leading demonstrations and applying public pressure after the incident.
- Palestinian Youth Movement—Participating in coordinated protest actions tied to the same movement.
Takeaways
There are ten takeaways. First, tactically, the riots targeting the Canopy and the Renaissance Minneapolis were effective. The rioters were highly organized, committed to their cause, and demonstrated elements of effective command and control. They successfully surrounded, harassed, and intimidated both hotels, preventing them from conducting normal business operations. The physical damage inflicted at the Renaissance further underscores this tactical success.
Second, strategically, the riots were partially effective. They failed to stop ICE operations but succeeded in generating national media attention, escalating political pressure, and demonstrating the far left’s capacity for organized, violent intimidation. While later ICE leadership changes and force reductions (from 3,000 agents in Minneapolis to 500) cannot be directly linked to the unrest, many participants likely viewed them as evidence that violence and disruption had produced results. Such perceptions matter because they can encourage future acts of political violence.
Third, hotel security at both properties appears to have been effective in preventing crowd breaches that could have resulted in mass casualties or catastrophic damage. At the Canopy in particular, security personnel demonstrated professionalism and resilience while facing sustained physical attacks from emotionally charged and ideologically motivated agitators.
Fourth, despite the success noted in point three, either mob could have penetrated the hotel lobbies and inflicted severe violence and destruction. As demonstrated in Muir Analytics’ SecureHotel Threat Portal (hotel violence database), this has occurred repeatedly at hotels worldwide, including recent cases in Bangladesh (see Muir’s Quick Brief here) and Nepal (see articles here and here). Some rioters in Minneapolis were clearly inciting extreme violence, while certain protest leaders attempted to restrain their own crowds. This represents an inherently unstable dynamic: Individuals “baying for blood” can rapidly overwhelm organizers’ attempts at control, with potentially irreversible consequences for hotels and occupants.
Fifth, if hotels targeted by far-left extremists lack appropriate insurance coverage, they risk catastrophic financial exposure when property damage, casualties, and lawsuits occur. Muir Analytics has previously documented this vulnerability in connection with the Palm Springs terrorist bombing, where a hotel was not properly insured against predictable forms of violence. (See Muir’s in-depth briefing on the Palm Springs matter here.)
Sixth, looking ahead, the emergence of a perceived martyr—combined with sustained dehumanizing rhetoric from influential politicians and media figures—creates powerful mobilizing conditions. Highly organized and violence-accepting left-wing agitators are likely to continue interfering with ICE operations and targeting them across multiple locations, including hotels. This is an established and decisive trend.
As an aside, extreme left-wing political leaders could temper their rhetoric and explicitly condemn violence while still opposing Administration policies. This, however, is not expected to occur.
Seventh, as a consequence of point six, Muir Analytics assesses that current levels of extreme left-wing violence will persist. This includes protest-driven mob violence and terrorism-style attacks similar to those already observed in Minneapolis, Texas, Portland, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Hotels believed to be housing ICE agents, other federal officials, right leaning pundits and politicians will be viewed as legitimate targets.
Eighth, escalation remains a realistic possibility. Far-left extremists may pursue higher-order violent actions such as bombings, arson, armed raids to seize hotel facilities (a tactic previously observed in the US), hostage-taking, or other complex operations. The presence of the previously mentioned martyr further increases the risk of radicalization and escalation among the most extreme actors.
Comparable escalation patterns were observed during the Alvarado, Texas terrorist attack. These groups have repeatedly demonstrated both the motivation and technical competence required to carry out serious acts of violence.
Ninth, rhetoric from the Sunrise Movement suggests that hostility is not limited to ICE or federal officials, but extends to hotel companies perceived as “collaborating with ICE” or “profiting from ICE.” As a result, corporate hotel assets and personnel may face elevated risk across the organizational hierarchy—from brand headquarters and corporate executives to regional leadership and front-line hotel management.
Tenth, and lastly, far-right extremist retaliation for left-wing violence cannot be ruled out, especially as the tempo of left-wing violence increases.
Muir Analytics runs the world’s largest, most sophisticated hotel violence database—the SecureHotel Threat Portal—with over 3,600 hotel attacks (and growing). We can provide the hospitality, insurance, and law enforcement/government sectors with intelligence that facilitates full-spectrum risk reduction, which helps hotels protect guests, staff, buildings, brands, and revenues. Contact us for a consultation: 1-833-DATA-444.
Sources and further reading:
“Twin Cities Demands ICE Leave Communist Party USA (CPUSA),” Their City, 12 January 2026.
“Minneapolis ICE shooting: 30 detained as Hilton Canopy Hotel protests escalate overnight,” FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul, 10 January 2026.
“BREAKING: Minneapolis Police, INCLUDING THE CHIEF, retreat after anti-ICE rioters attack them and seize control,” The Gateway Pundit, 10 January 2026.
“ICE protests get heated out Canopy by Hilton,” FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul (YouTube video), 10 January 2026.
Oscar (@zwergnase01), “Security forces are desperately trying to prevent radical leftists from storming the Canopy by Hilton Hotel in Minneapolis…,” post on X , 10 January 2026.
Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene), “Protesters attempt to force their way through a vestibule to further inside Canopy by Hilton Minneapolis Mill District,” post on X , 10 January 2026.
Cam Higby (@camhigby), “Rioters in Minneapolis have established their own quasi police force,” post on X , 9 January 2026.
@amuse (@amuse), “MINNEAPOLIS: Anti-America/ICE agitators armed with commercial fireworks…,” post on X , 9 January 2026.
FRONTLINES TPUSA (@FrontlinesTPUSA), “MINNEAPOLIS, MN: Minneapolis Police attacked by anti-ICE rioters while escorting police car out of the protest zone,” post on X, 9 January 2026.
FRONTLINES TPUSA, “MINNEAPOLIS, MN: Minneapolis Police attacked by anti-ICE rioters while escorting police car out of the protest zone,” 9 January 2026.
Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene), “Protesters inside a vestibule at Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, The Depot,” post on X , 9 January 2026.
“Far-left groups are behind the funding of anti-ICE protests in Minnesota: report,” ABC News 4 (Charleston, SC), 9 January 2026.
Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec), “BREAKING: Antifa have breached the doors of this hotel in Minneapolis and have begun destroying the lobby,” post on X , 9 January 2026.
“Here’s who’s really behind the Minneapolis ICE “resistance” movement,” New York Post, 8 January 2026.
“Socialist groups ramp up nationwide anti-ICE protests, target Noem, NYC,” Fox News,
8 January 2026.
“They are no longer an agency—they are a terrorist organization…,” Fox News Facebook post reproducing Omar’s written statement, 7 January 2026.
“Transcripts from CNN News Night with Abby Phillip,” CNN, 7 January 2026.
“Activists turn to noise demonstrations at local hotels to get ‘ICE out of Minnesota’,” Sahan Journal, 12 December 2025.
“5 times Democrats blasted ICE with harsh rhetoric,” Fox News, 24 September 2025.
“10 arrested after ambush on Texas ICE detention facility, officials say,” ABC News, 7 July 2025.
“Tim Walz calls ICE ‘Gestapo.’ Agency calls comparison ‘sickening’,” USA Today, 20 May 2025.
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