TARGET: YOU CANNOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS.

Emergency Community Candlelight Vigil

The vigil will bring community members and neighbors together in solidarity with families impacted by federal enforcement policies and to ask Target to speak out for democracy and against ICE violence.

STATEMENT FROM UNIDOS MN 

Target says it has no cooperation agreements with ICE. So what is it doing about reports that federal immigration agents are using its parking lots as staging areas?

Earlier this January, two Target employees, who are U.S. citizens, were assaulted by federal immigration agents at a store in Richfield, Minnesota, and Target failed to speak out when federal agents repeatedly staged operations and separated families in Target parking lots. 

Yesterday afternoon in the Bronx, New York, Oscar Belgal, a 28 year-old Dominican father pulled into a parking space when plainclothes agents approached his car with guns drawn and fired seven rounds into his car. A bullet struck him below his left ear while his five year old child sat in the back seat and watched it happen. The shooting happened just down the street from a Target parking lot where ICE agents have reportedly been staging. 

Target, saying you have no formal agreement with ICE is not enough.

A five year-old watched his father get shot, and Target responded by throwing their hands in the air. The public deserves to know how you protect your employees, your customers, and the communities that sustain your business. What are you doing to prevent your stores and parking lots from becoming the backdrop for enforcement operations that put people at risk?

And let's talk about something else: diversity-washing. 

Target has aggressively used its marketing tactics and sponsorship to cover conduct that harms our community, from running ads on MPR claiming to support the community, to positioning themselves as the main sponsor of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s 2026 Annual Gala celebrated at Orchestra Hall. Why?  Because it's an easy way to benefit from the courage and leadership of the Latino community without lifting a finger. 

When a corporation fully benefits from being associated with the Latino community, it should also be willing to answer to that community's concerns when immigration enforcement assaults and disappears its families and neighborhoods. A sponsorship is easy to buy. Courage has a higher price, and Target is coming up short. 

The community Target “celebrates” is the same community living in fear of abduction in its parking lots.

Latino families are Target’s customers and employees. Immigrants are our neighbors. And U.S. citizens have been swept up in these operations too. Target is the largest grocer in Minnesota, and the food on its shelves gets there through Latino and immigrant hands: in the fields, on the processing lines, in the warehouses, and in the aisles. These are real people, and they deserve far more than a public relations spot.

This is not about asking Target to break the law. It is about speaking out for the constitutional rights and rule of law that businesses have depended on. It is about demanding transparency, responsible property policies, and meaningful protections for the people who walk through its doors.

- Will you publicly clarify whether ICE has permission to stage operations on your property?

- What will you do to prevent your parking lots from being used as staging areas?

- What protections will you provide to employees and customers during immigration enforcement?

- Will you meet with affected communities and explain your policies publicly?

Our communities help keep Target in business. We have the power to organize, demand protections, and hold its leadership accountable. 

Target: sign the business for democracy pledge and become a good neighbor.