Target Corp. was hoping for a fresh start with a new chief executive officer, but an immigration crackdown in its hometown, Minneapolis, is putting the retailer back in a familiar position: confronting a political maelstrom that’s disrupting operations.
After immigration officials briefly detained two Target employees who are US citizens from a Richfield, Minnesota, store this month, some retail staffers started calling out of work at several locations in the Twin Cities area. Meanwhile, some teams have postponed planned in-office weeks at headquarters. And local faith leaders have demanded the company ban federal agents from its stores and parking lots and issue a statement clearly condemning the enforcement operation. Outgoing CEO Brian Cornell is set to meet with them Thursday, according to the delegation.
The timing of the turmoil couldn’t be worse for Target, which risks angering shoppers and employees by taking almost any stance on polarizing topics such as immigration and law enforcement. The company is still reeling from backlash against a pullback in diversity initiatives that turned away some shoppers. And it comes just a few years after Target was whipsawed by protests over merchandise tied to Pride Month and counterprotests when it later stopped selling some goods. Company insider Michael Fiddelke, set to start as CEO on Feb. 1, has said he will focus on revitalizing sales and reviving the retailer’s underperforming shares.
The company, the state’s fourth-biggest employer, hasn’t issued a public statement regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detainment of the two employees in Richfield, nor commented publicly about the surge of agents that have descended on the Twin Cities or the shooting death of a US citizen, Renee Good, by an ICE agent two weeks ago. A company spokesman declined to comment.
Chief Human Resources Officer Melissa Kremer said in a Thursday memo to employees that the company’s security teams are increasing communication with Minneapolis-based workers about expected disruptions near its locations. Senior leaders are actively engaging with government officials, community partners, faith leaders and other stakeholders, she said in the memo, viewed by Bloomberg News.
“While we can’t control everything happening around us, we are focused on what we can control,” Kremer wrote. “We’re listening and working to de-escalate where possible — while staying clear on what we need to safely operate our business and care for our team.”
She wrote in a separate memo this month that executives are assessing the landscape as it evolves and ensure that Target is providing the right support and flexibility where needed.
Workers are taking to internal Slack channels to share their frustration about the company’s silence, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Employees have circulated a letter to Target’s ethics team asking for guidance about how to handle law-enforcement operations and raising concern that the lack of a statement from corporate is sowing confusion, they said.
Other employees say staying neutral is the appropriate path forward and caution that taking a public stance risks making the company a bigger target for immigration operations.
Corporations have shied away from commenting publicly on the ICE surge because they don’t want to be seen as anti-enforcement and are trying to balance their public images with protecting their premises, employees and customers, according to David Leopold, a partner at Thompson Hine LLP who has been an immigration lawyer for three decades. Putting up signs forbidding ICE agents from entering, as has been urged by some local activists, is hard to enforce because agents can be in plain clothes and there isn’t a way to keep them out of public areas, he said.
At Target locations in the Twin Cities, staffers at at least two stores have told managers they’re too afraid to come into work, according to people familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified discussing the matter.
Of course other large businesses in the Twin Cities have been caught up in the turmoil caused by immigration enforcement and demonstrations and have mostly stayed quiet. Restaurants and hotels have been among the hardest hit as shoppers and employees stay home, according to Adam Duininck, the CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, a business group. He added that the slowing foot traffic will have a “chilling impact” on companies and the local economy that had been rebounding both in the wake of the pandemic and the unrest that followed George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
“This is a really complicated issue” that companies are trying to navigate by complying with the law and staying attuned to how employees and other shareholders are being affected, he said. “I expect that the longer this lasts, the more business leaders will speak out.”
And some shoppers are upset too. Over the weekend, some customers bought bags of salt — used to melt ice — and then promptly returned them in an effort to gum up store operations. Protestors held a demonstration at a West St. Paul store on Jan. 19. Last week, local faith leaders staged a seven-hour sit-in at Target’s headquarters.
As ICE arrests get more aggressive in the Twin Cities and suburbs nearby, community activists are calling for a statewide day of no work, school and shopping on Friday.
Target has told employees that it doesn’t have cooperative agreements with ICE. Federal agents have legal authority to be in parking lots and consumer-facing areas of stores without a warrant, but can’t enter backrooms or corporate buildings without one, according to internal documents viewed by Bloomberg. Headquarters has remained open, and travel guidance is unchanged.
So far, individual teams are handling some of the messaging and guidelines, with some groups deciding to postpone in-office work weeks as tension rises, according to people familiar with the matter.
The challenges are especially delicate for store employees. Target store workers in the area have been directed not to interfere with or block agents, and instead focus on de-escalation, according to an internal document.
A spokesman for ICE didn’t respond to a request for comment, but White House officials have defended the moves to increase the number of agents in Minnesota — and potentially send military personnel — as necessary to remove migrants living illegally in the US. The administration has said the massive federal force sent to the region is also investigating fraud allegations in a years-long probe involving members of the local Somali-American community.
Kang and Caldwell write for Bloomberg.
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