People gathered at the Target in the USC Village to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions on Wednesday morning.
A group of around two dozen people crowded around the registers while repeatedly chanting, “ICE out of Target.”
“ICE Out means abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” said protester Ulysses Gontes. “ICE Out means making sure they are not terrorizing our citizens.”
Protestors were inside Target for about 20 minutes and reconvened outside afterward.
During the protest, demonstrators delivered a letter to the store manager, informing Target of their demand that the corporation take stronger action against ICE, or face financial boycott from consumers.
“We want them completely out of Los Angeles,” said Nora Pittman, a demonstrator who heard about the protest from social media.
Demonstrators gathered to call for an immediate end to the ICE “surge” operations happening across major cities, for Congress to stop funding ICE and for any federal officer who kills a civilian to be held accountable.
They also called on Target to terminate all contracts and economic activity with ICE and to deny ICE agents entry to its stores without a judicial warrant.
This call came after two employees were detained by ICE agents while working at a Target in suburban Minneapolis, the day after ICE agents shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, while driving her car, according to a Scripps News video.
The two employees were released shortly after being detained and were not charged.
Target has not publicly commented on the detainment of its employees.
Protesters chose the USC target as the location “because of USC’s silence,” said Yesenia Miranda-Meza, a community activist who was leading the crowd in chants. “They haven’t been voicing anything regarding [ICE action], which affects a lot of their international students.”
Miranda-Meza emphasized that this was not a solo action; protesters at the USC Target joined more than two dozen Targets pushing the corporation to take a stand against President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda.
“We are not the only ones doing this,” Miranda-Meza said. “We are here in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Minnesota … we encourage our community to please stand in solidarity with Minnesota, with the U.S., with all of our indigenous brothers and sisters that are being persecuted.”
ICE Out Minnesota has called on demonstrators to continue protests and sit-ins at the corporation for a full week, according to the Associated Press.
Target’s headquarters is located in Minneapolis, a central focal point in the Trump administration’s deportation agenda. Last month, federal officers killed two U.S. citizens: Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at a medical center for U.S. veterans in Minneapolis, and Good.
The Minnesota-based retailer has faced backlash for its lack of response to the deaths in their home city, AP reported.
Following the second fatal shooting that occurred in Minneapolis at the hands of federal immigration enforcement officers, Target’s incoming CEO, Michael Fiddelke, told employees in his first address to the company, “the violence and loss of life in our community is incredibly painful,” CNBC reported.
Fiddelke was one of over 60 Minnesota-based company CEOs who signed an open letter “calling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions,” following Pretti’s death, according to AP.
“What’s happening affects us not just as a company, but as people, as neighbors, friends and family members within Target,” he said in his company address. “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.”
His statement did not have any direct mention of the shootings of Pretti or Good by ICE agents or the President’s immigration crackdown.
Miranda-Meza and other activists called on the community to boycott the corporate retailer.
“Our dollars mean something, our dollars have power,” she said. “Your money matters, put it in the right places, put it in local businesses and stop feeding this monster.”