The Minneapolis City Council approved liquor license renewals Thursday for two hotels that protesters have targeted for allegedly housing federal agents.
Some council members pushed to deny the license renewals for the Canopy by Hilton and the Depot Renaissance hotels. Council members pointed to public comments from staff at the hotels, who said they felt unsafe amid the federal immigration operation.
Some said they’ve been covering up windows to back-of-house areas to block worried staff from the view of agents.
Council member Aurin Chowdhury voted against renewing the liquor licenses, saying those reports were concerning.
“If workers can’t move around freely in their workplace and windows need to be covered up, that just feels like a real issue with labor standards and workplace safety that I am absolutely not OK with,” Chowdhury said.
Amy Lingo, the city’s manager of licenses and consumer services, led a review of the hotels’ liquor license renewal applications. She said the city heard those concerns and discussed them with hotel staff, but that none of the concerns were specifically related to the hotels serving liquor.
She said other concerns in public comments — including reports of hotel staff finding unsecured weapons in rooms while cleaning — were not specific to those two hotels, but were instead general concerns or related to other hotel locations.
“The relevant liquor codes are specific in use and scope, and the concerns that have been brought before me are tied to hotel occupancy more so than they are to the actual liquor license,” Lingo said.
She recommended approving the liquor license renewal applications.
Council member Jamal Osman agreed — though he said he understands the calls for hotels to stop housing federal agents.
“We must follow legal process in our city, even though it’s very uncomfortable to … have ICE agents in our city,” he said. “We have to show that we’re doing the right thing. We are the ones actually following the laws that we set.”
The council voted 8 to 5 to approve the liquor licenses.
