Target faces pressure as anti-ICE store protests move beyond Minnesota

Wednesday’s demonstrations unfolded amid heightened attention on Target in Minneapolis, where the company is headquartered and where federal officers last month killed two residents who had participated in anti-ICE protests. Activists said the protests were intended to pressure Target into taking a public position against the federal immigration crackdown that they say is being carried out in Minnesota.

The ICE Out Minnesota coalition, made up of community groups, religious leaders and labor unions among others, called for sit-ins and other demonstrations that organizers said would continue at Target stores for a full week. On Wednesday, demonstrations were planned at Target locations in Minnesota and elsewhere, including St. Paul, and major cities such as Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and San Diego.

In Minneapolis, Elan Axelbank, a member of the Minnesota chapter of Socialist Alternative, organized a protest outside a Target store in the Dinkytown commercial district. Axelbank said the group’s message was that Target was not “standing up to ICE,” even as it portrays itself as part of the community.

Organizers also planned demonstrations beyond Minnesota. They said actions were expected in suburban areas of Minnesota, and in states including California and Massachusetts, along with other cities in North Carolina and elsewhere.

Target’s involvement in the protest campaign traces in part to a widely circulated video showing federal agents detaining two Target employees in a store in the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield. Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos Minnesota—an immigrant-led social justice advocacy organization that is part of the ICE Out Minnesota coalition—said his group is focusing its protests on the Richfield store.

One of the central demands of the Wednesday protests is that Target deny federal agents entry to stores unless they have judicial warrants authorizing arrests. Most legal experts cited in the reporting said that, under existing law, anyone including U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can enter public areas of a business even without signed warrants, while certain off-limits areas—such as back offices and closed-off kitchens—are generally restricted.

Neil Saunders, managing director of the retail division at market research firm GlobalData, said that some critics argue Target should do more, but he added that companies must still “abide by the law.” He said Target can’t simply declare that ICE is not allowed in stores because, legally, agents are able to enter public areas.

Target declined to comment on the protests. The company also has not commented publicly on the detention of the store employees that helped spark the campaign. The store employee detentions, organizers said, became an organizing focal point for the coalition’s broader effort to pressure Target.

Target CEO Michael Fiddelke, who became chief executive on Feb. 2, sent a video message to the company’s roughly 400,000 workers two days after federal agents shot and killed Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti on Jan. 24. In that message, Fiddelke said the “violence and loss of life in our community is incredibly painful,” but he did not mention the immigration crackdown or the deaths of Pretti or Renee Good, a mother of three who was fired on in her car by an ICE agent.

Fiddelke also was one of 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies who signed an open letter calling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions. The protests targeting Target over what organizers described as the company’s alleged failure to oppose the crackdown come a year after Target faced protests and boycotts over its decision to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which critics said represented a betrayal of the company’s earlier philanthropic commitments in Minneapolis and beyond.

GlobalData’s Saunders said even though Wednesday’s protests targeted a small fraction of Target’s nearly 2,000 stores, the negative attention can become another distraction from the retailer’s business at a time when critics have complained of changes they describe as disheveled stores and missing the discount chain’s former “Tarzhay” flair. He said the protests could compound ongoing public scrutiny of the retailer.

In recent days, Mennonite congregations organized demonstrations inside and outside Target stores across the country, including protests involving singing. A spokesperson for Mennonite Action said the Mennonite coalition was not formally connected to ICE Out but said it was following the lead of organizers in Minneapolis.

Rev. Joanna Lawrence Shenk, an associate pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco, said the group did not plan any actions on Wednesday but was mapping out weekend singalongs at Target locations in multiple towns and cities, including Pittsburgh and Harrisonburg, Virginia. She estimated that by the end of the weekend more than 1,000 congregation members would have participated, saying the singing was meant to express love for immigrant neighbors at risk and who are also part of their congregation.

“ The singing was an expression of our love for immigrant neighbors who are at risk right now and who are also a part of our congregation,” Shenk said. “For us, it’s not just standing in solidarity with others but it’s also protecting people who are vulnerable.”

At the same time, legal experts said the pressure campaign may run into constraints about what businesses can deny to federal agents, particularly when officers seek access to public spaces open to customers.