NEW YORK (AP) — Activists plan to hold protests at two dozen Target stores across the U.S. on Wednesday, forcing the discount retailer to take a public stand against a five-week immigration crackdown in its home state of Minnesota.
ICE Out Minnesota, a coalition of community groups, religious leaders, unions and other critics of federal actions, is calling for sit-ins and other demonstrations to continue at Target locations throughout the week. Target is headquartered in Minneapolis, where federal officers killed two residents taking part in an anti-ICE protest last month, and the company’s name is emblazoned on the city’s major league baseball stadium and where its basketball team plays.
“They claim to be part of the community, but they are not standing up to ICE,” said Elan Axelbank, a member of the Minnesota chapter of Socialist Alternative, which describes itself as a revolutionary political group. On Wednesday, he organized a protest outside a Target store in Minneapolis’ Dinkytown business district.
Demonstrations are also planned in the cities of St. Paul, Minnesota, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, North Carolina, San Diego, Seattle, and suburbs in Minnesota, California, and Massachusetts. Target declined to comment on the protests Wednesday.
Target first came into the crosshairs of critics of the Trump administration’s surge in immigration enforcement after a widely seen video showed federal agents detaining two Target employees last month at a store in Ridgefield, a suburb of Minneapolis. Luis Argueta, a spokesman for Unidos Minnesota, an immigrant-led social justice advocacy group that is part of the CE Out Minnesota coalition, said his organization is focusing its protests on the Ridgefield store.
One of the demands of Wednesday’s protest was for Target to deny federal agents access to stores unless they have a judicial warrant authorizing an arrest.
Some attorneys argue that anyone, including U.S. Border Patrol, immigration and client law enforcement agents, can freely enter public areas of a business without a signed search warrant. Common areas include restaurant dining areas, open parking lots, office lobbies and shopping walkways, but do not include back-of-house offices, enclosed kitchens or other areas of a business that are generally off-limits to the public and reasonably require privacy, the lawyers said.
Target has not commented publicly on the store employee’s detention. Two days after a Border Patrol agent and a Customs and Border Protection officer shot and killed Minneapolis resident Alex Pretty on Jan. 24, Target CEO Michael Fiddelke, who took over as CEO on Feb. 2, sent a video message to the company’s 400,000 employees.
Fidelk said the “violence and loss of life in our communities is extremely painful,” but he made no mention of the immigration crackdown or the incident in which Preti, an intensive care unit nurse at the U.S. Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis, and Renee Goode, a mother of three, were shot and killed by ICE agents in their car.
After Pretty’s death, Fidelk was one of 60 CEOs of Minnesota companies who signed an open letter “calling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and asking state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.”
A year ago, Target faced protests and boycotts over its decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, sparked by the company’s alleged failure to stand up to an immigration crackdown in Minnesota. At the time, critics said the decision marked a betrayal of the retail giant’s philanthropic commitment to eradicating racial disparities and promoting progressive values in liberal Minneapolis and beyond.
The retail chain also faces continued sales slumps. Critics complain that cluttered stores lack the cheap style that long ago earned the retailer the nickname “Tarzhay.”
Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at market research firm GlobalData, said that while Wednesday’s protests targeted a small portion of the company’s nearly 2,000 stores, the negative attention is another disruption to Target’s business.
“The agenda has been hijacked by this,” Sanders said. “For Target, it’s a bit of a distraction, but they’re not willing to do it.”
The Mennonite National Alliance has organized about a dozen demonstrations in and around Target stores across the country in recent days, singing songs and urging Target to publicly call on Congress to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among other demands.
A spokesperson for Mennonite Action said the coalition is not officially affiliated with Ice Out and is following the lead of Minneapolis organizers.
The Rev. Joanna Lawrence Schenk, associate pastor at First Mennonite Church in San Francisco, said the organization had no plans to take any action Wednesday but was planning weekend singing events at Targets in several towns, including Pittsburgh and Harrisonburg, Virginia. She estimated that by the end of the weekend, more than 1,000 congregants would be in attendance.
Schenk noted that Mennonites sing “My Little Light” and other gospel songs and hymns.
“This song is an expression of our love for our immigrant neighbors who are now at risk and who are part of our congregation,” she said. “For us, it’s not only about solidarity with others, but also about protecting the vulnerable.”
