Minnesota Target Workers Stage Sick-Outs and Walkouts Over ICE Arrests

Videos showing Immigration and Customs Enforcement detaining two Target employees at a Richfield store set off a wave of worker-led sick-outs, walkouts and in-store sit-ins across the Twin Cities and beyond. The detentions, in which agents put two men in the back of an SUV and released them soon after, intensified fears among employees and prompted community leaders to press Target for firm protections on store property.

Organizers and employees described a range of tactics: staff calling out sick en masse, protesters staging sit-ins at flagship and neighborhood stores, volunteers acting as lookouts during shift changes, and demonstrations outside Target headquarters in downtown Minneapolis on the incoming CEO’s first day. Protesters inside the downtown flagship sang, chanted and even wore inflatable frog costumes while holding a house-shaped poster reading “Target Come Home To Your Values.” Pam Costain, a 75-year-old organizer with Indivisible Twin Cities, led about 50 people at the flagship and said, “If ICE can come in, we can come in.”

Workers and volunteers offered specific support to fearful colleagues. A logistics specialist who has worked at Target four years volunteered to stand watch during shift changes and to give rides home. One employee who spoke on background under the pseudonym Suzie described taking circuitous routes, turning off phone location tracking and feeling “very nervous - almost paranoid” when checking on targeted coworkers. A local screen printer said customers brought red Target uniforms and tote bags to be printed with anti-ICE slogans.

Employees expressed frustration with Target’s public silence and uneven internal guidance. Hundreds of workers signed an open letter saying, “Target's continued inaction in the face of the current administration puts all of us at risk of more harm in our workplaces and represents a moral failure to protect those in our community.” Internal Slack channels, employee letters to an ethics team, and reports that staff at multiple stores were too afraid to come to work reflect how acute the staffing and morale problems have become. Target’s chief human resources officer, Melissa Kremer, told employees security teams would increase communications with Minneapolis-based staff and that senior leaders were engaging with government and community partners, but the company has not issued a broad public statement about ICE operations on its properties.

Organizers and local officials disagree on scale. The New York Times reported that about two dozen Target stores in Minnesota saw demonstrations, while organizers quoted in a broadcast report said protesters took action at more than three dozen Target stores across the state and country and that thousands participated. Demonstrators and clergy who gathered at the downtown store presented demands including an immediate end to ICE operations in the state, barring ICE from stores or parking lots without a signed judicial warrant, and asking Congress to stop funding ICE.

The immediate impact is practical and personnel-focused: stores have reported disruptions and managers are fielding safety concerns that could affect scheduling, attendance and worker retention. With activists pressing for a corporate policy to deny law enforcement entry without warrants and employees demanding clearer protections, the next test will be whether Target adopts formal guidance for store access and whether organizers sustain pressure at locations nationwide.