‘I don’t support ICE’: gas station refusal ignites debate over denying service to federal agents
A string of recent incidents in which ICE agents and Department of Homeland Security leadership have been refused service at corporate gas stations and hotel chains has raised questions about whether private businesses can lawfully deny service to federal law enforcement officers.
The incidents — including ICE agents who were turned away from hotels and a Border Patrol commander being denied service at a gas station — have prompted debate over whether such refusals amount to lawful private discretion or illegal discrimination against federal law enforcement carrying out official duties.
The most recent flashpoint unfolded at a Speedway gas station, where video captured by conservative activist Cam Higby showed U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino being followed out of the store by a man identifying himself as a manager.
Bovino himself was silent on the matter when asked by Higby among the crowd outside Speedway, while Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said similar situations had transpired at several different gas stations where agitators stalked agents.
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When Higby asked the man why he refused Bovino service, he replied: "Because I wanted to. I don’t support ICE and nobody here does."
The man remained silent when asked if he thought it was legal to deny service to federal agents based on their role, while the employee could be heard saying, "If it is [illegal] I personally don’t care."
Fox News Digital reached out to Speedway and its parent company, 7-Eleven, for a response. An employee who picked up the corporate phone line said he would forward this reporter’s message to the "proper department," but no comment was returned.
The incident follows other similar situations, including the case of a then-Hampton Inn-branded hotel in nearby Lakeville, Minnesota, where employees repeatedly refused service to ICE agents; canceling reservations and asking them to "pass on" the news they were unwelcome.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was also denied entry to a building in a Chicago suburb to use the restroom.
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After public apologies from Hilton and the franchisee, Everpeak Hospitality, Hilton eventually took corrective action by removing the inn from its rolls and even sending a crane to remove its Hampton Inn sign from the roadside.
Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta later told The Guardian that it also closed a DoubleTree hotel where ICE agents were staying after the property received bomb threats.
Nassetta suggested a distinction in the two cases: "A safety and security issue is a different issue — it’s closed to all."
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Former Assistant U.S. Attorney for North Florida Zack Smith told Fox News Digital that, from a practical standpoint, the behavior of people like the Speedway manager as reported was wrong.
"It’s shameful conduct to try to penalize men and women who are going out, day in and day out, seeking to enforce federal… law, seeking to penalize them and refusing to provide them services," said Smith, currently a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Institute for Constitutional Government.
"We've seen this in the past, particularly when a lot of emotions were high in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis, in other places where individuals were refusing service to law enforcement."
Smith said in an exclusive interview that while the businesses may retain the legal right to deny Bovino or others services, it doesn’t make it right.
"I think that's shameful conduct and, at the end of the day, it ultimately has harmed many of those businesses. Now, in terms of whether businesses have the right to turn away law enforcement officers, just because they may have the right to do it doesn't make it the right thing morally to do."
The best recourse, Smith said, is not a legal one — but the power that every American consumer has. That appeared to be the case after the Speedway tape went viral and critics promised to stop patronizing the otherwise ubiquitous convenience store chain.
After Bovino was blocked from Speedway, conservative ire erupted online at the chain and its parent 7-Eleven — including for not publicly addressing the situation in any prominent way, as Hilton had.
"I suspect part of that is the reason, you mentioned earlier, that Hilton was revoking the franchise of some hotels that refuse to honor reservations for federal law enforcement [is] they understand that many consumers are not going to approve or like it when businesses are refusing service to individuals simply because they are members of law enforcement," Smith said.