Activists held protests at more than two dozen Target stores across the country on Wednesday, demanding the Minneapolis-based retailer publicly oppose the five-week-long federal immigration crackdown in its home state—a crackdown that has left two residents dead.
ICE Out Minnesota, a coalition of community groups, religious leaders, and labor unions, called for sit-ins and demonstrations to continue at Target locations for a full week. The protests come after federal officers killed two Minneapolis residents—Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at a VA medical center, and Renee Good, a mother of three—who had participated in anti-ICE protests last month.
“They claim to be part of the community, but they are not standing up to ICE,” said Elan Axelbank, a member of Socialist Alternative’s Minnesota chapter, who organized a protest outside a Minneapolis Target.
Target became a specific focus after a widely-circulated video showed federal agents detaining two Target employees inside a store in the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield last month. The retailer has declined to comment on both the detentions and the protests.
Demonstrators are demanding Target deny federal agents entry to stores unless they have judicial warrants authorizing arrests.
But most legal experts say anyone—including ICE and Border Patrol agents without signed warrants—can enter public areas of a business as they wish. Target, in other words, likely couldn’t ban them even if it wanted to.
CEO Michael Fiddelke, who took over on February 2, sent a video message to Target’s 400,000 workers two days after agents killed Pretti. He called the “violence and loss of life in our community incredibly painful” but didn’t mention the immigration crackdown or the fatal shootings specifically. Fiddelke was one of 60 Minnesota CEOs who signed an open letter calling for “de-escalation of tensions” after Pretti’s death—a statement critics found toothless.
The immigration protests pile onto Target’s existing troubles. The company has faced boycotts over its decision last year to roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and continues to struggle with sluggish sales and complaints about disheveled stores missing the budget-priced flair that once earned it the nickname “Tarzhay.”
Demonstrations were held in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, San Diego, and other cities. A national coalition of Mennonite congregations has also organized roughly a dozen singalong demonstrations at Target stores, with members singing “This Little Light of Mine” and other hymns.
“The singing was an expression of our love for immigrant neighbors who are at risk right now,” said Rev. Joanna Lawrence Shenk, associate pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco. “For us, it’s not just standing in solidarity with others but it’s also protecting people who are vulnerable.”
