{"id":463664,"date":"2026-02-12T06:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T06:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/463664\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T06:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T06:33:07","slug":"target-faces-pressure-as-anti-ice-store-protests-move-beyond-minnesota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/463664\/","title":{"rendered":"Target faces pressure as anti-ICE store protests move beyond Minnesota"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Activists planned protests at more than two dozen Target stores around the United States on Wednesday to pressure the discount retailer into taking a public stand against the 5-week-old immigration crackdown<\/a> in its home state of Minnesota. <\/p>\n

ICE Out Minnesota, a coalition of community groups, religious leaders, labor unions and other critics of the federal operation, called for sit-ins and other demonstrations to continue at Target locations for a full week. Target\u2019s headquarters are located in Minneapolis, where federal officers last month killed two residents<\/a> who had participated in anti-ICE protests, and its name adorns the city\u2019s major league baseball stadium and an arena where its basketball teams plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey claim to be part of the community, but they are not standing up to ICE,\u201d said Elan Axelbank, a member of the Minnesota chapter of Socialist Alternative, which describes itself as a revolutionary political group. He organized a Wednesday protest outside a Target store in Minneapolis\u2019 Dinkytown commercial district.<\/p>\n

Demonstrations also were scheduled in St. Paul, Minnesota, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, North Carolina, San Diego, Seattle and other cities, as well as in suburban areas of Minnesota, California and Massachusetts. Target declined Wednesday to comment on the protests. <\/p>\n

Target first became a bull\u2019s-eye for critics of the Trump administration\u2019s surge<\/a> in immigration enforcement activity after a widely-circulated video showed federal agents detaining two Target employees in a store in the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield last month. 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. <\/p>\n

One of the demands of Wednesday\u2019s protests is for Target to deny federal agents entry to stores unless they have judicial warrants authorizing arrests.<\/p>\n

But most legal experts have argued that anyone, including U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customers Enforcement agents<\/a> without signed warrants, can enter public areas of a business as they wish<\/a>. Public areas include restaurant dining sections, open parking lots, office lobbies and shopping aisles, but not back offices, closed-off kitchens or other areas of a business that are generally off-limits to the public and where privacy would be reasonably expected, those lawyers say. <\/p>\n

Neil Saunders, managing director of the retail division of market research firm GlobalData, added that some people say Target should take more action, but he noted Target has to abide by the law.<\/p>\n

\u201dIt can\u2019t just say ICE is not allowed in stores because legally they are,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Target has not commented publicly on the detention of the store employees. CEO Michael Fiddelke, who became Target\u2019s chief executive on Feb. 2, sent a video message to the company\u2019s 400,000 workers two days after a Border Patrol agent and a Customs and Border Protection officer shot and killed Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti<\/a> on Jan. 24. <\/p>\n

Fiddelke said the \u201cviolence and loss of life in our community is incredibly painful,\u201d but he did not mention the immigration crackdown or the fatal shootings of Pretti, an ICU nurse at a medical center for U.S. veterans in Minneapolis, and Renee Good<\/a>, a mother of three fired on in her car by an ICE agent. <\/p>\n

Fiddelke was one of 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies<\/a> who, in the wake of Pretti\u2019s death, signed an open letter \u201ccalling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.\u201d <\/p>\n

The protests over its alleged failure to oppose the immigration crackdown in Minnesota come a year after Target faced protests and boycotts<\/a> over the company\u2019s decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives<\/a>. At the time, critics said the decision marked a betrayal of Target\u2019s retail giant\u2019s philanthropic commitment to fighting racial disparities and promoting progressive values in liberal Minneapolis and beyond.<\/p>\n

The retail chain also is struggling with a persistent sales malaise. Critics have complained of disheveled stores that are missing the budget-priced flair<\/a> that long ago earned the retailer the nickname \u201cTarzhay.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Wednesday\u2019s protests targeted a tiny fraction of the company\u2019s nearly 2,000 stores, the negative attention serves as another distraction from Target\u2019s business, according to Saunders, managing director of the retail division of market research firm GlobalData.<\/p>\n

In recent days, a national coalition of Mennonite congregations organized roughly a dozen demonstrations inside and outside of Target stores across the country, singing and urging Target to publicly call Congress to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement among other demands. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Mennonite Action said the coalition was not formally connected to ICE Out but following the lead of organizers in Minneapolis. <\/p>\n

The Rev. Joanna Lawrence Shenk, associate pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco, said the group did not plan any actions on Wednesday but was mapping out weekend singalong events at Targets in a handful of towns and cities, including Pittsburgh and Harrisonburg, Virginia. She estimated that by the end of the weekend more than 1,000 congregation members will have participated.<\/p>\n

Shenk noted that the Mennonites sing \u201cThis Little Light of Mine\u201d and other gospel songs and hymns. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d she said. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s not just standing in solidarity with others but it\u2019s also protecting people who are vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Activists planned protests at more than two dozen Target stores around the United States…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[203372,28,2356,12,793,790,215970,215971,2001,74602,16950,6429,6661,83875,5631,3234,3775,3766,2229,191965,20999,200479,795],"class_list":{"0":"post-463664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-alex-pretti","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-immigration","14":"tag-joanna-lawrence-shenk","15":"tag-luis-argueta","16":"tag-massachusetts","17":"tag-michael-fiddelke","18":"tag-minneapolis","19":"tag-minnesota","20":"tag-mn-state-wire","21":"tag-neil-saunders","22":"tag-pa-state-wire","23":"tag-pennsylvania","24":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","25":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","26":"tag-religion","27":"tag-renee-good","28":"tag-retail-and-wholesale","29":"tag-send-to-apple-news","30":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463664","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=463664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}