Target: Call for ICE Out of Minnesota
The violent federal immigration enforcement surge that has cost the lives of multiple Minnesotans has been tearing apart families, destabilizing communities, and is violating our freedom across the country. We can't move forward as if this is normal. It is not.
This is the moment to ask corporations like Target that have been collaborating with ICE to speak out.
Host or join a Sit-in Action at your local Target store this Saturday, January 31.
Why Target?
Target donated $1,000,000 to Trump’s inauguration, rolled back DEI initiatives, and witnesses have reported Target regularly allows ICE to stage operations in its parking lots. On Thursday, January 8th, Customs and Border Patrol assaulted and kidnapped two US citizens while they were working a shift at the Richfield, MN Target store.
Target is Minnesota’s leading corporate citizen. It is the 4th largest employer in the state. Minnesota’s sports teams play in stadiums and jerseys with Target’s logo on them. Where Target leads, others follow. We need Target to stand with Minnesotans against the public executions in our community and the continued attacks on our neighbors.
Our Demands
Publicly call for an immediate end to the ICE “surge” into MN and for ICE & Border Patrol to leave the state.
Affirm Target as a 4th Amendment Workplace. (Exercise their 4th Amendment rights and publicly post signage denying entrance to immigration agents who do not have signed judicial warrants as required by law, as well train staff on how to respond when immigration agents arrive at stores.)
Publicly call to shut down Trump’s ICE. Lobby congress for no additional federal funding for ICE in the upcoming Congressional budget and ICE should be investigated for human and Constitutional violations of Americans and our neighbors.
Demand any federal officer who kills or harms a civilian be held legally accountable. That starts with legitimate investigations and charges by local officials.
Your mission is to:
Take in-person and/or online action to demand Target speak out and stop collaborating with ICE. See action toolkits below.
Sit-In Action
What to do:
CLICK HERE TO HOST / JOIN A TARGET SIT-IN at your local Target store with a group of friends. Not sure where the closest store is? Find a store here.
Hang out near the cash registers, at the front of the store. And invite other patrons to join you. See below for ideas on what to do in the 'choose the flavor of your action' section!
Take photos and videos.
There’s a good chance that Target employees will kick you out. That’s ok, in fact it’s a good thing. Target has not been asking ICE to leave their stores, even after citizen workers were brutally detained. So why would they ask us to leave? Hang out until they’ve asked you a couple of times, and then head out. Make sure that you record them kicking you out. We want the world to see that it’s possible to kick someone out of the store.
Make sure to tell the workers why you’re doing this, and that they should let Corporate know we’ll be back. Download and print out this community letter you can all sign so they know exactly why you’re doing this.
You can print out these signs and fliers to share with other shoppers who might want to know why you’re doing this. If you need a full-page version rather than a quarter sheet, click here.
Choose the flavor of your action:
Sing in: sit down in a circle, and sing, chant, use visuals to get the message across. Here is links to some songs you might sing: We are many (shows what a sing-in can look like), We get there together, Solo el pueblo salva el pueblo, Streets of Minneapolis
Work-in: Some people have said ICE is just doing their job. Bring your laptops and get some work done together. You’re just doing your job.
Put your action on the map:
We’re putting Target on notice, one day before their new CEO starts. Put your action on the map to let Target know they’ll be hearing from us, and give them a chance to decide to speak out.
Report back on your action. Let us know how it went, to help us strategize for what comes next!
Here’s a link with more details, including do’s and don’ts on pulling off an event like this.
*Please note: A core principle behind all our events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. Weapons of any kind, including those legally permitted, should not be brought to events*
Deliver a letter to the manager at your local Target:
Bring 3 (or 10 or 20) friends with you
Download and print out this community letter so individual members of your delegations who come ready to speak to the Target store manager can sign it
When you arrive at your local Target, take 5 minutes to have a pre-meeting with whomever is there:
Have someone take photos!
Make a plan of who will engage with Target staff, ask to speak to the manager, and who will talk with Target security if they try and speak with you
With your group, have someone ask to speak with the manager. Hand them the fourth amendment workplace sign and the signed community letter with the following 3 demands:
1. Publicly call for an immediate end to the ICE “surge” into MN and for ICE to leave the state;
2. Affirm Target stores as fourth amendment workplaces, publicly posting signage denying entrance to immigration agents without signed judicial warrants and training staff on how to respond if immigration agents enter illegally;
3. Publicly call for Congress to shut down ICE.
If the manager says that people already visited, ask the manager: Have you heard back from Target Corporate? What progress has been made on the community demands?
IMPT: Report back on your visit to Target here.
Online action:
Log onto the Target website. Find something inexpensive and in stock at your local store, like table salt, and add it to your cart. When you click online checkout, update your name under “Order pickup person”. The default will be your name, but you can edit this to say something like “ICE out of Minnesota, Target speak up!”
Place your order, and then don’t go pick it up. Target has a policy where any orders not picked up after three days will be automatically refunded.
Repeat. Encourage friends (anywhere in the country) to do the same!
In-Store Salt-ICE Action:
This action is most powerful with a larger group.
Go to Target with a group of friends. Find where there is salt, either for cooking (only $0.89) or for outdoor use. Grab some, and go to self-checkout.
Why salt? Because salt melts ICE.
When you get to self-checkout, take as much time to checkout as you can. Click the wrong button on the screen. Start over from scratch. Ask for help from Target staff. Pay with nickels. Get creative!
The goal is to slow down checkout. (Check out a similar action at a Home Depot in California a few months ago)
After you finish checkout, take your purchased item to the returns section. Process the return, again moving slowly. Have an issue with the card reader. Ask the staff for help. We want to back up the entire returns process.
Repeat these steps as long as you are able or until you get asked to leave.
If you are able to get things really backed up, take a photo or video and post it to social media, explaining why you’re doing this.
If staff ask what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, lift up the three demands.
1. Publicly call for an immediate end to the ICE “surge” into MN and for ICE to leave the state;
2. Affirm Target stores as fourth amendment workplaces, publicly posting signage denying entrance to immigration agents without signed judicial warrants and training staff on how to respond if immigration agents enter illegally;
3. Publicly call for Congress to stop funding ICE.
You can also print out these fliers to share with shoppers. If you need a full-page version rather than a quarter sheet, click here.
Tell them what you’re doing and why, what you just did in the store, and invite them to pass along the three demands to the manager when they’re inside too.
What is the fourth amendment?
The fourth amendment to the US Constitution states the following: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath of affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
What that means in practice is that federal agents do not have the legal right to show up unannounced at private spaces like a home or a business and demand entry without a warrant signed by a judge. The fourth Amendment was ratified in the US Constitution as part of the Bill of the Rights in 1791. The Framers of the Constitution recognized the importance of having explicit, named legal protection against unreasonable search and seizure because they had direct experience of that from the British.
What does it mean to be a fourth Amendment Workplace?
Fourth Amendment Workplaces implement measures to reduce the risk of unconstitutional entry by federal agents. This helps to keep workers and patrons safer, and ensure more people know their rights in the event federal agents do show up. Fourth Amendment Workplaces train employers and employees on what rights we all have under the fourth amendment, and how to protect against unlawful search and seizure.
That means training on how to interact with federal agents, how to safeguard employees if federal agents enter illegally, and how to avoid revealing private information about employees.
Here is a helpful story about a local McDonalds who practiced their Fourth Amendment rights.
Engaging local businesses
Any workplace can become a fourth Amendment Workplace. It is powerful to engage workplaces that both do and do not have workers at higher risk from ICE. Building a community groundswell of support – and demonstrating broad support for fourth Amendment Workplaces – helps keep us all safe. We are learning from allies across the country who’ve worked to recruit businesses as fourth Amendment Workplaces, and the most powerful way to ask is through a personal invitation. Go to businesses that you frequent and where you have relationships with staff.
If you’re thinking about where to go, map out the businesses where you have personal relationships. It might be your neighborhood coffee shop, or a place across town where a friend works. Within your list of businesses where you have a relationship, think about prioritizing businesses that have some of the following characteristics:
High Profile: When people think of your neighborhood, your town, your city, they think of this place.
High Visibility: They’re visible from a road or a sidewalk that gets foot or car traffic, or have a notable online presence.
Share our Values: They’re known for being pro-worker and pro-immigrant.
What should you ask your local businesses to do?
When you go to speak to a local business, it’s important to frame the conversation around shared values and care for our communities. Look to establish shared concerns about the crisis situation we’re all living for, and that this is a powerful way to show up for our neighbors. Ask local businesses to put up fourth Amendment Workplace signs in their windows, and to share information with their workers about the rights that we all have under the fourth Amendment.
Download and print out 2 copies of the fourth amendment business signs (black and white) stating that ICE is not welcome and what rights businesses have under the fourth amendment. Be sure to print in landscape, not portrait, and if you’re having issues with formatting make sure in your print settings “scale” set to “Fit to printable area”.
Additionally, ask local businesses to participate in the January 23rd Day of Truth and Freedom. This is a day when Minnesotans are standing together to say that enough is enough, we need ICE out, and we’re going to demonstrate that by withholding our time, our money, and our labor. No work. No school. ICE Out. Businesses can participate by committing to close on Friday, January 23rd.
What Can Businesses Do as fourth Amendment Workplaces?
Businesses wanting to become fourth Amendment Workplaces can do it by taking several steps: 1) Post a fourth Amendment Workplace sign at entrances to your business stating that federal agents are not welcome without a warrant 2) Meet with staff to train them on their rights and how to take basic workplace protections 3) Create a plan for how to respond if ICE shows up 4) Separate public and private spaces in a business. There is more information about how businesses can respond here.
It’s important to post signs demonstrating commitment to be a workplace that protects community members as well as having specific language about denying access to federal law enforcement without a warrant signed by a judge in private areas. If you are a business that only has public spaces, you can still post signs stating that all community members except ICE are welcome.
Why post signs publicly?
A preemptive statement that ICE cannot enter private space creates the conditions for any entry by ICE into that private space to be illegal. This can dissuade officers from entering in the first place, or it can create conditions for any subsequent kidnapping and detention to be illegal. It creates an extra layer of safety for staff and patrons who may fear coming to work or visiting a business. It also creates a climate in a neighborhood, in a town, or in a city where more businesses should be doing the same thing.