Protesters Press Target to Take a Stand Against ICE Crackdown in Minneapolis

The Minnesota-based retail chain has avoided criticizing anyone, even after federal agents detained two employees at a local store. Its new C.E.O. faces pressure to do more.

Protesters opposed to the federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis have turned their attention to Target stores across the country, putting pressure on the Minnesota-based retail giant to stop cooperating with federal agents.

Demonstrations have recently taken place at about two dozen Target stores in Minnesota, with additional protests in other cities, including Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia and New York.

Pam Costain, 75, who works with the volunteer group Indivisible Twin Cities, organized about 50 people to protest at Target’s flagship store in downtown Minneapolis on Saturday. They sat in the store, singing, chanting, wearing inflatable frog costumes and holding a house-shaped poster that read: “Target Come Home To Your Values.”

However, when the group first tried to go into the store, Ms. Costain said, some Minneapolis police officers tried to prevent them from entering. “If ICE can come in, we can come in,” she told them. The group stayed for about an hour and then left.

The protests are a direct challenge to the retailer and to Michael Fiddelke, a longtime Target executive who officially stepped into the top job on Sunday.

The company had little public response after two of its employees were detained by immigration agents at a store in suburban Minneapolis last month. And executives have carefully avoided criticizing or endorsing either the federal agents or the protesters.

Protesters gathered at Target headquarters in Minneapolis on Monday morning to demand that the company take a stronger position against the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies that are part of the law enforcement surge in the region.

A Target spokesman said the company was aware of the protests and sought to ensure that they remain safe.

“We recognize the importance of peaceful protests as a way for individuals to express their views and be heard,” the spokesman, Brian Harper-Tibaldo, said.

Target has been at the center of protests before. In 2020, its stores were damaged and looted after George Floyd was killed by police. Early last year, after President Trump attacked diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the company faced backlash and boycotts for rolling back prominent D.E.I. programs it had once championed.

Now, Target is facing new ire for what detractors say is a disappointing and insufficient stance against the violence taking place in Minneapolis, where two U.S. citizens have died at the hands of federal agents and residents continue to clash with immigration officers.

In mid-January, cellphone videos showed two Target employees detained by federal agents in a store in Richfield, Minn. “I’m a U.S. citizen!” one of the young employees repeatedly shouted on video.

Since then, protests have taken place at Targets across Minnesota, where the company is the fourth-largest employer. Advocacy organizations in Minneapolis have issued calls for sit-ins, protests and other demonstrations at Target stores across the city and the country.

The groups have also encouraged people to repeatedly buy and return salt, “because salt melts ICE,” and to deliver letters to managers demanding that Target leadership support an end to the ICE operation in Minnesota.

“Where Target leads, others follow,” reads the website of one of the organizations that has organized the protests, Unidos Minnesota. “We need Target to stand with Minnesotans against the public executions in our community and the continued attacks on our neighbors.”

Mr. Fiddelke, the company’s new chief executive, joined other Minnesota executives last week in signing an open letter that called for “an immediate de-escalation of tensions.” In a recent note to staff, he told employees that “the violence and loss of life in our community is incredibly painful.”

Ulla Nilsen, an organizer with Unidos Minnesota, said that those actions were not enough. She said that her group, an immigrant-led social justice advocacy organization, won’t stand down until Target publicly calls for an end to ICE’s presence in Minnesota. She said that her organization also wants the company to deny entrance to immigration agents who don’t have signed judicial warrants, although lawyers have said there is little that Target can do to prevent federal agents from operating in its parking lots and store aisles.

Elan Axelbank, an organizer with Socialist Alternative’s Minnesota chapter, said he has organized or participated in several Target protests in the past two weeks.

On Friday, a group of roughly 100 people gathered outside of a Target in Dinkytown, home to the nearby University of Minnesota. Demonstrators formed a picket line outside of the store’s entrance, holding signs and shouting. Shoppers squeezed past the group as they marched in a circle, with protesters urging prospective customers to shop elsewhere.

Mr. Axelbank said several Target employees also participated in the demonstrations. He said the next day, when another rally happened at the same Dinkytown Target, management shut the store down early.

“We’re already having an impact,” he said. “We’re definitely going to keep going.”

Protests have also occurred recently at Targets in cities like Chicago, Seattle and Philadelphia.

On Thursday evening, the Chicago-based organization The People’s Lobby, which lobbies against corporate power, organized a protest at a local Target. Deana Rutherford, the organization’s communications chair, said the protest was held in solidarity with Minneapolis, but also reflected outrage at the ongoing federal immigration operations in Illinois.

Around 50 protesters gathered inside the Target, with more people outside. They pretended to shop for around 30 minutes, and then began to drum and chant phrases like “Hey, Target, your silence is loud” and “Say it once, say it twice, Target must stop helping ICE.”

Within a few seconds of a local clergy leader beginning to speak, police showed up to escort protesters outside, Ms. Rutherford said. She said eight people with the group, who had blocked doors to prevent more shoppers from coming in, were arrested.

“We are trying to show there are economic consequences to choosing the side of fascism,” she said.

On Friday, about 300 people gathered outside a Target in downtown Seattle, including high schoolers who walked out of their classes as part of a national protest, said Evan Sutton, a member of Troublemakers Community, an advocacy group that helped stage the rally.

“I saw electricians, I saw grocery workers, I saw some teachers, and then just, you know, your everyday, concerned Seattle citizen,” Mr. Sutton said. About 20 protesters walked inside the store chanting and waving their banners and signs, to deliver a list of demands to the store’s manager, who promised to pass them along to upper management, Mr. Sutton said.

Claire Fahy contributed reporting.

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