There was a nationwide strike on Friday and massive Anti-ICE protests around the US this weekend in the wake of the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. It was hard to find a comprehensive print story about this, I assume due to the Trump administration prosecuting journalists and suppressing information. The Associated Press has a breakdown of Friday’s strike and the NY Times has a profile of some of the protests, with a biased focus on smaller cities and turnouts. (MS Now has a decent video overview.) Protestors were arrested In Los Angeles and chemical weapons were sprayed on activists in both LA and in Portland.
ICE has been kidnapping shoppers and workers at Target stores in Minnesota with no pushback or comment from the company. It’s almost like a wink and a nod from corporate that they’re welcome to terrorize people. Target is already under a nationwide boycott for the last year for abandoning DEI policies. Now activists are reminding everyone how awful Target is and calling for a renewed boycott. Here’s more, from NPR:
Protesters across the U.S. on Saturday demonstrated against the federal government’s immigration enforcement tactics in Minneapolis. The group 50501 called on communities to shut “ICE Out of Everywhere” in a national day of action.
The anti-ICE protests include calls for boycotts against retailers and businesses perceived to be in cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In Washington, D.C., a coalition of organizations picketed Target stores. The retailer is headquartered in Minneapolis.
“I want them to see that we are not just standing idly, while our neighbors are being kidnapped. We are standing for our brothers and sisters in Minneapolis,” said Slobodan Milic, wearing his purple Free DC sweatshirt while picketing a Target store along a busy thoroughfare of the city.
Milic’s group Free DC wants Target to publicly call for an independent investigation into the killings of Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this month. The group is also requesting that the retailer publicly affirm solidarity with immigrants and opposition to ICE’s recent immigration operations. Challenges are playing out in federal court.
About two dozen protesters marched on the sidewalk in front of Target in below freezing temperatures and surrounded by mounds of snow. They carried signs and chanted “boycott target,” “ice out,” and “I believe that we will win.”
Toby Harkleroad manned the megaphone. He says he just returned to D.C. from Minneapolis, where he joined faith leaders for a demonstration at Target’s headquarters.
“The most important things are to do something, anything. And to just keep showing up,” he said. “Some of us want this immediate impact, and we’re not going to get immediate impact in this. But our sustained efforts will show impact – are showing impact – and if nothing else, they keep encouraging others,” Harkleroad said.
Protesters in Minnesota have also marched at Target stores and held sit-ins. They say ICE is staging operations in the retailer’s parking lots. Demonstrators want Target to ban ICE from its stores.
NPR points us to this milquetoast “won’t everyone get along!” statement signed by Minnesota CEOs, including Target’s soon-to-be CEO Michael Fiddelke, calling for de-escalation . This is a bleak time in America and it’s hard to know what to say or do. It’s heartening to see so many of us organizing, protecting our neighbors, and calling out this evil administration and the corporations that support them.
A third No Kings protest is scheduled for March 28th. We’ll be there, and we’ll hopefully have made more strides against ICE in the meantime.
As I was trying to find photos for this story I found video of people doing sing-ins and sit-ins at Targets in Minnesota and around the US! Thank you and let’s keep it up. We’re in this for the long haul.
Protesters are going all over the Country and doing sit ins at Target stores asking them to stand up to ICE ever since they allowed ICE to snatch two of their own employees that were American citizens and drag them away significantly injuring them & then dumping them miles away! pic.twitter.com/NePwd19327
— Suzie rizzio (@Suzierizzo1) February 1, 2026
Target called the police on peaceful Minnesotans today, telling us we were on private property.
But when ICE comes to brutalize and abduct people in their stores, Target says it’s public space and can’t stop it.
Target needs to decide – do they stand with Minnesotans, or masked abductors? #ICEOut
— Pop up leftist supply depot (@mikerollin2.bsky.social) January 31, 2026 at 4:14 PM
Sit-ins are being held at Target stores across the state. Demonstrators want Target to "stand with Minnesotans" and publicly call for ICE to leave, according to organizers.
Ongoing coverage: bit.ly/3NO1vD6
📷️ Anthony Soufflé/The Minnesota Star Tribune
— Minnesota Star Tribune (@startribune.com) January 31, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Greetings! There’s a picket line outside of the Target in Dinky Town neighborhood of Minneapolis. The Target is closed for the day.
— Sean Beckner-Carmitchel (@acatwithnews.bsky.social) January 31, 2026 at 6:10 PM
I have spent exactly $3 at Target in the last 13 months. My kid needed birthday candles and they were my only option. And I LOVED Target.
I also have not shopped there since I started boycotting at the inception of their complicity against POC and justice. They keep giving reasons to never return and I, like you, loved Target.
Haven’t been in more than a year, and I don’t miss it!
My Target credit card account was closed for lack of activity — I made sure to tell them why.
They’ve chosen their side. I have chosen mine.
I will continue to boycott them. Our Target is still open, and people still go, but not like they did. I keep wondering if it will shut down, but they must be getting just enough business to keep it going. It’s the 2-storey kind, and we were thrilled when it opened, but these times are making me go to the local hardware store and Pet Food Express. I’ve been to Target twice to buy mouthwash in the last year, so I’m looking for an alternative that isn’t Amazon.
Scott Galloway has a website that helps people review tech to cancel, too. My husband doesn’t want to give up Netflix. I’m planning to go over the list with him to cancel everything we can. He told me that he works so hard, and Netflix is his only TV fun. We may keep that, but we should be Amazon free by the end of the week.
I’m boycotting them, have been since the election.
All of these comments are so uplifting. Thank you. I needed to hear about this common humanity and solidarity. ❤️
I live in a rural area and absolutely loathe Wal-Mart (which is the only major big box store within 30+ minutes of my home). Their ruthless business model has destroyed all competetion except Dollar Stores with inflated prices in my area. I used to drive an hour plus out of my way and willingly paid extra to shop at Target to avoid giving the horrid Walton family more money. The rank and file Target employees will suffer because of the lunancy and greed of a few evil executives. The endgame of Target executives seems to be the deliberate destruction of the company which the employees can’t thwart because they can’t unionize. Every Target executive should be investigated because this level of incompetence is deliberate and in all likelihood competitors like Walmart and Amazon are behind it. The system is so broken. People need to also focus boycott energy on Wal-Mart, Amazon, Home Depot, Starbucks and countless other companies controlled by the greedy billionaire lunatic fringe.
Target is DEAD to me.