Masked ICE agents, pepper spray and protests: What's happening at Natomas hotels?

Jennah Pendleton, The Sacramento Bee on Nov 5, 2026

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Two Sacramento hotels have become staging grounds for confrontations between federal immigration agents and activists protesting their presence in the city. The protesters recently gained a vocal ally in City Councilmember Lisa Kaplan.

A group of immigration advocates monitoring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began protesting Tuesday night outside the Hilton Garden Inn in North Natomas after spotting what they identified as federal vehicles at the hotel.

Protests outside the Hilton Garden Inn and nearby Homewood Suites, another Hilton property, have resulted in several altercations between protesters and law enforcement. In the early hours of Wednesday morning federal agents outside the Hilton Garden Inn were captured on video appearing to use pepper spray on two protesters, including Antonio Moreida, who drew attention last month after he was struck by a federal immigration vehicle in Woodland.

Tensions continued Wednesday night when Sacramento police detained and cited two well-known anti-ICE activists, Alyssa Gatti and Leanna Hunt, for trespassing at Homewood Suites. Gatti and Hunt had also been detained by city police while observing ICE enforcement in south Sacramento. Their detention, along with a video of a Sacramento police officer speaking with a federal agent, prompted City Manager Maraskeshia Smith to formally instruct the department to stop “acting as a security detail for ICE.”

Kaplan, who represents North Natomas, sided with the protesters, urging Hilton to stop housing ICE agents and warning the company that demonstrations would continue at the hotels if it did not.

“I believe local businesses should never act as a harbor for an agency dedicated to terrorizing our neighbors, tearing families apart and violating human rights,” Kaplan said in a statement posted to her social media Thursday.

She condemned the reported use of chemical agents and physical force against protesters, saying that “community members exercising their first amendment right to protest and observe federal actions should never be targeted with force.”

Kaplan said in an interview that she was trying to reach the general managers of both hotels but had been unsuccessful. The Sacramento Bee’s calls to the hotels went unanswered, and calls to the media representatives listed on Hilton’s website were unsuccessful.

“Do they want to protect their guests or protect ICE agents?” Kaplan said.

ICE altercations at Natomas hotels

Video taken early Wednesday morning showed two masked men in police uniforms believed to be federal immigration officers standing outside the Hilton Garden Inn on Advantage Court. One of the officers grabbed a protester who was filming him and deployed pepper spray after a brief struggle. Activist Sisi Rose said two protesters were sprayed directly and two others were affected.

The confrontation prompted another protest Wednesday night outside Homewood Suites, also on Advantage Way about a quarter-mile from the Hilton Garden Inn, after activists were told ICE agents had moved there.

At 11:45 p.m., Sacramento police detained Gatti and Hunt and issued them criminal trespass notices and citations for refusing to leave the property, a police spokesperson said. Gatti and Hunt said they were not refusing to leave when officers detained them. They also alleged that police singled them out because of an altercation the previous week.

“We were 100% targeted,” Gatti said. “There were between 10 to 15 other people there and we were the only ones who were cuffed. It seemed retaliatory.”

Asked whether the activists had been singled out, a spokesperson for the Sacramento Police Department said officers responded to a request from hotel staff to remove people who refused to leave the property.

Both Gatti and Hunt have urged the city to strengthen its sanctuary policies and abandon its agreement with a regional intelligence-sharing center.

“I’m appreciative of the fact that Maraskeshia and Kaplan are being very clear in what they’re saying — the actions are being condemned and we are being supported in our First Amendment right,” Hunt said.

Hunt also called for action on the city’s agreement with the fusion center and discipline for police officers she accused of violating state sanctuary law.

“She has the opportunity to do more and I appreciate the words, but I hope she takes some actions with those words.”

“I am grateful that this is something that our local city officials are taking seriously, but I wish that our concerns had been taken seriously earlier before it got to this point because we have been voicing serious concerns about the conduct of Sac PD in collaboration with ICE and DHS,” Gatti said.

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