New York — Activists planned protests at more than two dozen Target stores across the United States on Wednesday to pressure the discount retailer to take a public stance against the 5-week-old. Immigration campaign In her home state of Minnesota.
ICE Out Minnesota, a coalition of community groups, religious leaders, labor unions and other critics of the federal process, called for sit-ins and other demonstrations in the targeted locations to continue for a full week. Target is headquartered in Minneapolis, where federal officers were last month Two residents were killed Who participated in anti-ICE protests, and whose name adorns the city’s main baseball stadium and the arena where its basketball teams play.
“They claim to be part of the community, but they don’t stand up to ICE,” said Ilan Axelbank, a member of the Minnesota chapter of the Socialist Alternative Party, which describes itself as a revolutionary political group. He organized a protest Wednesday outside a Target store in Minneapolis’ Dinkytown business district.
Demonstrations are also scheduled in St. Paul, Minnesota, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, North Carolina, San Diego, Seattle and other cities, as well as in suburban Minnesota, California and Massachusetts. On Wednesday, Target declined to comment on the protests.
The goal initially became a target for my detractors The rise of the Trump administration in immigration enforcement activity after a widely circulated video showed federal agents detaining two Target employees at a store in the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield last month. Luis Argueta, spokesman for Unidos Minnesota, an immigrant-led social justice advocacy organization that is part of the CE Out Minnesota coalition, said his group is focusing its protests on the Richfield store.
One of the demands of Wednesday’s protests is that Target bar federal agents from entering stores unless they have warrants allowing arrests.
Some lawyers have argued that anyone, including the US Border Patrol and… Immigration agents and clients Without signed authorizations, They can enter public areas to work as they wish. Public areas include restaurant dining sections, open parking lots, office lobbies, and shopping arcades, but not back offices, enclosed kitchens or other business areas that are generally off-limits to the public and where privacy is a reasonable expectation, these attorneys say.
Target has not commented publicly on the detention of store employees. CEO Michael Videlek, who became CEO of Target on February 2, sent a video message to the company’s 400,000 workers two days after a Border Patrol agent and a Customs and Border Protection officer shot and killed a Minneapolis resident. Alex Pretty On January 24th.
“The violence and loss of life in our community is very painful,” Fedelke said, but he did not mention the immigration crackdown or the fatal shooting of Preeti, an intensive care unit nurse at a US Veterans Affairs medical center in Minneapolis. Rene is gooda mother of three, was shot in her car by an ICE agent.
He was my friend One of 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies Who, in the wake of Pretty’s death, signed an open letter “calling for the immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.”
The protests over its alleged failure to oppose the immigration crackdown in Minnesota come a year after Target faced protests Boycott Because of the company’s decision Rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. At the time, critics said the decision represented a betrayal of retail giant Target’s philanthropic commitment to fighting racial disparities and promoting progressive values in liberal Minneapolis and beyond.
The retail chain is also experiencing persistent sales distress. Critics complained about the shaggy stores missing out Taste at budget prices Which earned the long-time retailer the nickname “Tarzhay.”
While Wednesday’s protests targeted a small portion of the company’s roughly 2,000 stores, the negative attention served as another distraction from Target’s business, according to Neil Saunders, managing director of the retail division at market research firm GlobalData.
“This has hijacked the agenda,” Saunders said. “And it’s kind of a distraction for Target that they wouldn’t rather have.”
In recent days, a national coalition of Mennonite congregations have held nearly a dozen demonstrations inside and outside Target stores across the country, singing 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 was not officially associated with Ice Out but was following in the footsteps of organizers in Minneapolis.
The group was not planning any actions Wednesday but was planning individual events over the weekend at Targets in a few towns and cities, including Pittsburgh and Harrisonburg, Virginia, said the Rev. Joanna Lawrence Schenk, associate pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco. She estimated that by the end of the weekend more than 1,000 congregation members would have participated.
Schenk noted that Mennonites sing “This Little Light of Mine” and other gospel songs and hymns.
“The singing was an expression of our love for our immigrant neighbors who are in danger now and who are also part of our parish,” she said. “For us, it’s not just about solidarity with others, it’s also about protecting vulnerable people.”