‘We need Target to stand up’: activists in Minneapolis press retailer amid ICE arrests at its stores

Demonstrators with Unidos MN hold a sit-in at a Target store, in west St Paul, Minnesota, on 19 January. Photograph: Tim Evans/Reuters

While thousands of protesters marched through downtown Minneapolis on Friday to demand that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents leave the city, a smaller group of activists set their sights on a specific destination: the downtown headquarters of the national retailer Target.

Dozens of clergy members and their supporters planted themselves in the atrium of the store. “Say it loud and say it clear, immigrants are welcome here,” the group chanted. “Something ’bout this isn’t right – why does Target work for ICE?”