Minnesota Coalition Calls on Target to Reject Sham Federal Conspiracy and Stand With Minnesotans

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 18, 2026

Contact:Luis Argueta Jr., Communications Director
Unidos MN || press@unidos-mn.org

Community, labor, faith, education, healthcare, and climate leaders demand an end to political surveillance and call on Target to sign the Business for Democracy Pledge

Gabriel Van de Water Davis, one of the 15 people federally indicted for conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers, talks to Unidos executive director Emilia González Avalos after speaking during a press conference condemning federal surveillance Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

MINNEAPOLIS — Community, labor, faith, education, healthcare, and climate leaders gathered outside Target’s downtown Minneapolis headquarters Tuesday morning to condemn the federal government’s surveillance of Minnesotans who peacefully organized against ICE violence and to call on Target and other Minnesota corporations to stand with the communities, workers, and customers who sustain them.

The coalition delivered a letter asking Target to sign the Business for Democracy Pledge and meet with community leaders before early voting begins. The pledge calls on businesses to ensure their employees can participate meaningfully in the democratic process and to oppose efforts to deny people that freedom.

Court filings released August 13 revealed a federal surveillance operation that infiltrated meetings, monitored constitutionally protected activity, collected license plate information, sought union financial records, and placed 18 Minnesota organizations on a chart alleging a conspiracy. Coalition leaders called the investigation a politically motivated fishing expedition intended to intimidate Minnesotans who organized peacefully to protect their neighbors.

The coalition also pointed to the warrantless detention of two U.S. citizen Target employees at the company’s Richfield store during Operation Metro Surge. Target has not publicly addressed the incident.

“Target’s workers, customers, and neighbors were among the hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans who held this state together,” said Emilia González Avalos, executive director of Unidos MN. “They shared food, walked children to school, kept businesses open, and stood in subzero weather with a phone and a copy of the Constitution. Target calls itself a good neighbor, and this is a moment to prove it. No company can protect its workers, its customers, or its bottom line without a functioning democracy. We are asking Target to sign the Business for Democracy Pledge, meet with this coalition, and use its influence to stand with Minnesotans.”

Speakers emphasized that Minnesota corporations derive their workforce, customers, public reputation, and economic strength from the same communities now facing political surveillance. Remaining silent, they said, allows the federal government to normalize retaliation against workers and community members for exercising their constitutional rights.

“Instead of holding federal agents accountable for killing Renee Good and our union brother Alex Pretti, the Trump administration continues to weaponize the federal government against unions, communities, and anyone who peacefully opposes its agenda,” said Bernie Burnham, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO. “Minnesota’s labor movement stood with our immigrant union members and neighbors because that is what solidarity requires. These scare tactics will not distract us, and we join the call for Target to sign the Business for Democracy Pledge.”

Faith leaders rejected the government’s attempt to portray caring for neighbors as evidence of criminal activity.

“What Minnesotans did this winter came from a higher calling: protect our neighbors, welcome the stranger, and love others as we love ourselves,” said Minister JaNaé Bates, director of ISAIAH and Faith in Minnesota. “Every Minnesotan is beholden to one another, and that includes our businesses and corporations. Signing the democracy pledge means speaking when we see injustice and opposing a government that uses its power to push people down instead of helping all of us thrive.”

“These sham political investigations are acts of retribution and intimidation. They are the work of a bully, not a builder,” said the Rev. Jen Crow, senior minister of First Universalist Church of Minneapolis, which was among the congregations subjected to federal surveillance. “This unconstitutional abuse of power and waste of taxpayer dollars will not build up our communities. Silence is not an option. We call on Minnesota businesses, elected officials, and communities of faith to reject political surveillance and help us hold our community together.”

Labor leaders said the surveillance was intended to weaken the relationships that allowed workers and neighbors to respond collectively during Operation Metro Surge.

“Our members stood against ICE, supported mutual-aid funds, and joined rapid-response networks that protected their friends and neighbors,” said Kieran Knutson, president of Communications Workers of America Local 7250. “This gross invasion of our unions and community institutions does not intimidate us. An injury to one is an injury to all. We are not pacified, and we never will be.”

Members of the Minnesota 15 described the investigation and prosecutions as an attempt to criminalize dissent and frighten others away from peaceful organizing.

“This administration followed a manufactured crisis with a manufactured conspiracy,” said Gabriel Van De Water, a community organizer, artist, and member of the Minnesota 15. “The government is trying to make an example out of some of us so that all of us hesitate to exercise our rights and protect one another. We will not allow that to happen.”

“The revelation of Operation Puppet Master shows that while the government was targeting immigrant communities and tearing families apart, it was also trying to disrupt one of Minnesota’s greatest strengths: our connected and unified labor movement,” said Alec Stewart, a member of the Minnesota 15 and MAPE. “Those relationships were effective because people stood together. We are asking our siblings in labor to protect those connections and continue resisting attacks on working people.”

Healthcare leaders described how workers responded when federal enforcement disrupted access to care and spread fear throughout Minnesota communities.

“I heard from a hospice nurse who was blocked by ICE from reaching a dying patient and from providers caring for people after violent encounters with federal agents,” said Phillip Cryan, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa. “Countless Minnesotans rose to the occasion and protected one another. If the government comes after 15 of us or 1,500 of us, the hundreds of thousands who kept our communities safe will stand with them. We keep us safe.”

Youth climate organizers said the surveillance demonstrates the power created when people organize across issues and generations.

“Our meetings were infiltrated and financial records were subpoenaed, yet they found no conspiracy because we are a nonviolent movement,” said Lacey Tooker-Kirkevold, an organizer with Sunrise Twin Cities. “We organize, protest, tell the truth, and care for one another. The government wants fear to define the limits of our movement, but we will turn fear into solidarity and intimidation into action. We are here, we are together, and we are not going anywhere.”

Educators described how ordinary acts of care, including food drives, rent assistance, school patrols, and donations to families, were swept into the government’s conspiracy narrative.

“We organized across our district to deliver groceries, raise rent money, protect students on their way to school, and continue educating them through an extraordinary crisis,” said Treasure Thoreson, a special education teacher, Minneapolis Federation of Educators Local 59 executive board member, and member of the Minnesota 15. “Those are nonviolent, legally protected acts. Target, Cargill, Best Buy, 3M, and other Minnesota businesses should take note: silence is complicity. This attempt to break our unity will not move us.”

“Welcome to the land of 10,000 lakes and 100,000 unindicted co-conspirators, because we all stand together,” said Marcia Howard, president of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators teacher chapter. “Target presents itself as a homegrown company and a good neighbor. It benefits from Minnesota’s workers, educators, families, and customers. Now it must live into that promise. Make good for our neighbors, our students, our workers, and every Minnesotan who stood up.”

Coalition leaders called on Target and other Minnesota companies to reject the sham conspiracy publicly, demand an end to political surveillance and retaliation, and use their governmental relationships and economic influence to defend Minnesotans’ freedom to organize. They also called for transparency about the use of taxpayer dollars and accountability for federal agents who violated Minnesotans’ rights.

“Silence is not an option, and neutrality is not an option,” González Avalos said. “Somos vecinos. Somos trabajadores. Y somos muchos. We are neighbors. We are workers. And we are many.”

About Unidos MN

Unidos MN is an immigrant-led, multiracial, statewide organization building power with Minnesota’s working families to advance social, racial, and economic justice. Unidos MN organizes across immigration, democracy, education, healthcare, worker, and climate justice to build a multiracial democracy where everyone can thrive.