{"id":429128,"date":"2026-01-25T14:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T14:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/429128\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T14:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T14:48:07","slug":"minnesota-workers-pressure-employers-to-take-action-against-ice-operations-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/429128\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota workers pressure employers to take action against ICE operations | Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of the US\u2019s biggest companies are coming under increasing pressure to speak out about the Trump administration<\/a>\u2019s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE<\/a>)\u2019s operations in Minnesota<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Workers throughout Minnesota have been pressuring their employers to act following the death of Renee Good<\/a>, an unarmed woman killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The killing on Saturday of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old Veterans Affairs Hospital ICU Nurse and member of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), intensified those calls <\/a>from labor unions against ICE.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE continues to make everyone less safe, and Minnesota\u2019s Labor Movement repeats and amplifies our call for them to leave our state immediately,\u201d said Bernie Burnham, Minnesota AFL-CIO President, in a statement<\/a>. \u201cMinnesota\u2019s Labor Movement will continue to actively support and stand in solidarity with every worker who has been unlawfully detained. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Minnesotans in the face of a hostile federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, labor unions, community leaders, and faith leaders organized a Day of Truth & Freedom<\/a>, calling for<\/a> an economic blackout of no work, no shopping and no school.<\/p>\n

Organizers of the Day of Truth & Freedom have been targeting large corporations in demanding they take stands against ICE, including ceasing economic activity with the agency, and banning the agency from entering work sites.<\/p>\n

Target, Home Depot, Enterprise, Delta Airlines and Hilton were targeted<\/a> with actions leading up to the 23 January economic blackout. Hundreds of Target workers signed onto a letter<\/a> addressed to the company\u2019s CEO and other leaders criticizing the company\u2019s silence on the ICE operations in Minnesota. None of the companies responded to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so sad to see Target so silent,\u201d said Sheletta Brundidge, an activist and organizer<\/a> in Minneapolis who started<\/a> a Target boycott with activist Nekima Levy Armstrong against the company rescinding<\/a> their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Levy Armstrong was recently detained<\/a> by the FBI for an anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church. Brundidge\u2019s marketing company previously worked<\/a> with Target.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Target CEO should be out in the street talking to people. He should be part of the protesting. He should make sure that the neighbors to his company\u2019s headquarters are taken care of. Has he gone out to the site where Renee Good was killed and dropped off water or hand warmers? Have they done anything for her children? Has he stepped out of that ivory tower to look around and see what is going on?\u201d added Brundidge.<\/p>\n

Sheletta Brundidge and Nekima Levy Armstrong in front of Target in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photograph: photo courtesy of Cameron Brundidge<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a protest that marched right in front of his headquarters on Friday. They didn\u2019t even mention it, they are silent, and silence says something. Silence doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t know what to say. Silence says I don\u2019t give a damn. I don\u2019t care about the people that shop here. I don\u2019t care about the people who work here. I don\u2019t care about the people in this community. I don\u2019t care. Keep spending your money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Target\u2019s executives reportedly met with clergy in Minneapolis last week who protested in the company\u2019s lobby. The Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> the company began distributing internally updated guidelines for how staff should respond to \u201cunannounced immigration-related contacts\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hilton has faced scrutiny after a Hampton Inn in its network of hotels cancelled<\/a> the reservation of ICE agents and Hilton removed it from its network earlier this month. But this past week, Hilton backed<\/a> a decision to close<\/a> a DoubleTree hotel and an Intercontinental hotel where ICE agents were staying in the Twin Cities region following reported bomb threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cA safety and security issue is a different issue\u2014it\u2019s closed to all,\u201d said Hilton\u2019s CEO, Chris Nassetta.<\/p>\n

A recent report<\/a> by North Star Policy Action estimates the immigration enforcement operation is costing taxpayers at least $18m per week. Immigrant workers and business owners generate $41bn annually in economic output for Minnesota.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want ICE out of Minnesota. In construction, they are causing harm and chaos. People can\u2019t work,\u201d said a construction worker in Minnesota, a member of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en La Lucha<\/a> (CTUL), who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation to their immigration status.<\/p>\n

The worker and several of his co-workers and allies delivered a petition to the largest<\/a> US house developer by volume, DR Horton, at their regional office in Lakeville, Minnesota, on 21 January.<\/p>\n

They are demanding the developer prevent ICE from entering job sites without a valid warrant and to demand an end to the ICE violence and raids. The worker said no one came to speak with the group, but the police were called to ask the group to leave, which they did peacefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police said we need to leave because it is private property, and a few community members pointed out that this is precisely what we are asking of DR Horton \u2013 to not allow ICE on their private job sites without a signed and valid judicial warrant,\u201d said Jac Kovarik, the communications coordinator for CTUL, in a statement on the action.<\/p>\n

DR Horton did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and my coworkers haven\u2019t been working for a month now,\u201d added the worker. \u201cICE agents are going to construction sites, they\u2019re circling around, apprehending people, assaulting people without a warrant.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted his church has been providing food and helping to cover rent for him and his co-workers as ICE\u2019s operations have halted construction projects for the contractor where he works.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security called the actions of labor unions and workers \u201cbeyond insane. Why would these labor bosses not want these public safety threats out of their communities?\u201d<\/p>\n

They added, \u201cthese are the criminals these labor bosses are trying to protect,\u201d citing 23 unnamed photos of claimed undocumented immigrants arrested in Minnesota<\/a> with criminal records.<\/p>\n

Under the Trump administration, thousands of people targeted<\/a> by ICE have no<\/a> criminal<\/a> record<\/a>, and numerous US citizens<\/a> have<\/a> also<\/a> been<\/a> detained<\/a>. In 2025, Donald Trump also issued more than 1,600<\/a> pardons<\/a> of individuals convicted of crimes, including US Capitol insurrectionists<\/a> and wealthy campaign donors<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of the US\u2019s biggest companies are coming under increasing pressure to speak out about the Trump administration\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-429128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}