A protest is planned for Tuesday morning outside of a Target location in the Bronx over the store’s alleged cooperation with ICE.
Community leaders and elected officials are expected to lead a morning rally in protest of claims that the Marble Hill store allows the federal agency to use its parking lot as a staging area. A Target spokesperson told The New York Times the company had no “cooperative agreements” with ICE.
The protest action comes in response to last Thursday’s shooting of Oscar Belgal, a 25-year-old man wounded by ICE agents mere blocks from the Target located on West 225th Street.
“Claiming you have no formal agreement with ICE does not absolve you of responsibility. Where is the public condemnation? Where is the demand that ICE leave parking lots serving your stores?” Tamika Mallory, co-founder of Until Freedom, said in a statement ahead of Tuesday’s protest.
The group is calling on Target to condemn ICE operations, end any use of its properties by the federal agency, and bar any future use “wherever legally permissible.”
Protests have flooded the streets of the city since last week’s shooting of Belgal in his vehicle, where he had a 5-year-old child in the back. The criminal suspect was taken into ICE custody from the hospital where he was treated.
Tuesday’s group expected to protest the store in the Bronx said additional protests are being planned for other Target locations across New York City.