Target confirms the retail giant “does not have any cooperative agreements with ICE or any other immigration enforcement agency,” as protests against the company have spread from Minnesota to stores across the country. Cellphone videos showed that Border Patrol agents detained two employees at a Target store in Richfield, Minn., last month.
By Nancy Levine Stearns | February 2, 2026
On his first day as Target’s new CEO on Sunday, Michael Fiddelke faced escalating protests at stores in Minnesota and across the country. Cellphone videos showed that Border Patrol agents detained two employees at a Target store in Richfield, Minn., last month. Both employees appeared to have been filming the agents.
“I’m a U.S. citizen!” one of the workers shouted as agents pushed him toward their SUV.
Target spokesperson Brian Harper-Tibaldo emailed Impactivize on Sunday, confirming, “Target does not have any cooperative agreements with ICE or any other immigration enforcement agency.”
But protesters and advocacy groups nationwide are demanding Target, headquartered in Minneapolis, be more forceful rejecting ICE. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been militarized and deployed to U.S. cities, its agents terrorizing residents and workers. President Trump and his allies have empowered federal agents to perpetrate state-sponsored violence against protesters.
Protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis last month. Trump administration immigration officials, ICE and DHS agents, have faced a mountain of growing condemnation.
Deanna Rutherford, Communications Manager for The People’s Lobby, an advocacy group in Chicago emailed Impactivize:
“Broadly, we demand that corporations stop providing the resources that allow Donald Trump and ICE to keep terrorizing, kidnapping, and murdering us. Target can tell you they don’t have a ‘cooperative agreement’ with ICE all they want, but allowing ICE agents to come in and take their employees while they’re on duty and allowing [Border Patrol commander] Greg Bovino to film propaganda videos in their stores sure sounds like a ‘cooperative agreement’ to me.”
In his email to Impactivize, the Target spokesperson cited reporting by AP: “Anyone — including immigration enforcement officers — can legally enter the public areas of a business,” and “can even make arrests.”
But attorney Seth Goldstein, Partner at Goldstein & Singla PLLC in New York, clarified the AP reporting. In a message to Impactivize, Goldstein wrote, “It’s my understanding that although ICE can enter public areas they cannot detain anyone unless they have probable cause. Also, the store can create a policy which bars ICE from entering the store without a warrant. Probable cause does not include race, accent, language, or appearance.”
Goldstein told Impactivize in a phone conversation, “The store does have agency. Target is making a choice.”
Protests in Minnesota and across the country at Target stores have escalated, with protesters staging sit-ins and protests outside of stores, with protests continuing on Monday.
Luis Argueta Jr., spokesperson for Unidos MN, a Minneapolis-based advocacy group, said Target’s statement “avoids responsibility.” In a message to Impactivize, Argueta Jr. said, “If federal agents can detain people in or around a Target store, then Target is allowing its space to be used for enforcement, whether it’s formal or not. A company of this size has the ability to prevent that and should use it.”
He wrote, “Our message to all large corporations is simple: do not let ICE turn your workplaces into enforcement zones. Require warrants, refuse voluntary cooperation, and take responsibility for what happens on your property.”
ICE started to conduct raids of Home Depot parking lots last year, reportedly following orders of Stephen Miller, senior White House advisor. The Washington Examiner reported an ICE official saying last year: “’Stephen Miller wants everybody arrested. ‘Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?’” the official recited.”
After ICE raids of Home Depot parking lots were widely reported last year, a spokesperson from Home Depot messaged Impactivize: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the best source for any questions you have about this. We weren’t notified that this was going to happen, and we weren’t involved in the operations.”
Argueta added, “Staying neutral while people are detained or harmed at work is not neutrality, it’s a decision that puts profits over people and the Constitution.”
ICE and white Christian nationalism
The deployment of militarized forced to U.S. cities, including Minneapolis, Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C., are consistent with a larger strategy, one that enacts the ideology of Project 2025, the blueprint for white Christian nationalist regime change, authored by the Heritage Foundation.
But white Christian nationalism is an extremist ideology, and many clergy leaders say ICE and DHS tactics are not consistent with Christianity. 100 clergy leaders were arrested last month for protesting in downtown Minneapolis in sub-zero temperatures.
Pastor John Pavlovitz wrote in an essay last week, “Full-blown theocracy is the plan, and trust me when I tell you that we won’t recover from it if they are given greater power or prolonged influence. If we fail in opposing their Christo-fascist agenda both in the streets and at the polls, they will have a political power that will render every election null and void, and we will never have a voice again in our lifetimes.”
Despite risks posed to businesses by the Trump administration’s deployment of militarized forces and extremist ideology, most large corporations, including Target, have been reticent to speak out. The president and his allies have weaponized the levers of government to punish those who criticize or don’t fall in line with the Trump administration’s agenda.
For example, Trump admin FCC (Federal Communications Commission) Chair Brendan Carr deployed extortion-type tactics last year, blocking Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T from completing acquisition deals unless they scrapped their DEI initiatives (diversity, equity and inclusion). The telecom giants complied, and the FCC approved their deals.
Carr, who authored the chapter about the FCC for Project 2025, appears to be one of several Project 2025 operatives embedded in the Trump administration.
Days after shareholders of Walt Disney Company voted to reject an anti-DEI proposal last year by a tally of 99-1 percent of voting shares, Carr ordered FCC enforcement unit to launch an investigation into Disney for what he called “invidious forms of DEI discrimination.”
Carr lifted the anti-DEI language directly from the Project 2025 manifesto — the word “invidious” originated in Project 2025 to describe DEI. Not a coincidence. The word “invidious” has about 0.7 occurrences per million words in modern written English, according to the Oxford English Dictionary,
Russell Vought, the Trump admin Director of the OMB (Office of Management and Budget), helped launch Heritage Action for America, the dark money arm of the Heritage Foundation, the organization that holds copyright to Project 2025. Vought once told an audience: “I’m a Christian. I am a nationalist. We were meant to be a Christian nation,” as ProPublica reported.
Trump admin’s ideological war against DEI
The Trump administration’s war on corporate DEI was declared on Day One of his current presidency, with the president issuing an executive order. Project 2025 is the provenance of the war on DEI, an attack on everyone who isn’t a white, straight, Christian, abled male.
Target was among the first large companies to comply with Trump’s demand to eliminate DEI programs. In contrast, retail giant Costco doubled down on DEI, citing a business imperative. Target caved to Trump and has paid the price. Boycotts against Target for scrapping DEI started last year, and have ramped up after Target’s meek response to immigration officers in its stores.
David Casey, corporate advisor and retired Chief Diversity Officer, messaged Impactivize:
“If Target didn’t previously have immigration as one of its priorities, that issue has now literally kicked in their front door,” noting the company is “also in the midst of ongoing DEI related boycotts and headquartered in a city at the epicenter of race relations and law enforcement, following the murder of George Floyd.”
Meanwhile, investors, boards of directors, and CEOs of most large corporations have rejected anti-DEI proposals from ideological activist groups, delivering a resounding message: diversity, equity and inclusion is a business imperative.
Shareholders of 32 out of 32 corporations, collectively valued at more than $13 trillion, voted overwhelmingly to reject anti-DEI proposals in 2025-6, most by 99 percent of voting shares. Target shareholders voted to reject an anti-DEI proposal in June last year.
Corporations shift from silence to meek pushback
Corporations have shifted from complete silence to meek vocalizing. Target CEO Fiddelke joined 60 CEOs in a joint letter last week calling for an immediate de-escalation, marking the first collective action by businesses to speak out. The statement was seconded by the Business Roundtable, an association of 200-plus CEOs of America’s largest corporations.
About the open letter, “former Medtronic Chairman and CEO Art Collins said he supports the letter but wished it would have gone further by urging U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pull out of Minnesota immediately. ICE’s continued presence, Collins said, ‘serves no useful purpose and only further enflames an already volatile situation,’” reported the Minnesota Star Tribune. “However, the White House has proven quick to retaliate against leaders who speak out, Collins said, citing last week’s lawsuit by President Donald Trump against J.P. Morgan and chief executive Jamie Dimon.”
Kelli Matthews, professor of public relations at the School of Journalism at the University of Oregon, told Impactivize in a phone call that Target’s primary response to ICE should be ensuring that employees feel safe.
To this end, Fiddelke sent a note to Target employees, noting that “the violence and loss of life in our community is incredibly painful” and that “we are doing everything we can to manage what’s in our control, always keeping the safety of our team and guests our top priority.”
Casey messaged, “With more than 400,000 employees in the U.S., Target is not a company that has to sit back and simply let things happen to them; they have a considerable voice and power when it comes to the government’s impact on their employees and communities.”