New Target CEO faces heat as protesters plan Monday rally outside HQ over ICE

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Protesters plan to gather outside of Target’s headquarters in Minneapolis on Monday in an effort to put pressure on the company’s new CEO to denounce the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown tactics.

The planned protest comes after anti-ICE protesters occupied 23 Target stores located throughout the Twin Cities. At a protest organized inside of a downtown Minneapolis Target, 50 people staged a sit-in and chanted while wearing inflatable frog costumes, according to New York Times reporting.

Meanwhile on Friday, there were 100 people gathered outside of a Target located in Dinkytown, Minneapolis. Protests against Target have also sprung up in other major cities including Seattle, Chicago and Philadelphia. In Seattle, there were 300 people, including high schoolers, gathered outside a Target store on Friday.

Advocacy groups are also calling on people to buy and then return large quantities of salt, to symbolize their efforts “because salt melts ICE.”

Protesters claim that the retail giant has not taken a strong enough stance against ICE and criticized Target for allowing ICE and other immigration enforcement officers to come inside its stores. Last month, two Target employees, who are also U.S. citizens, were detained by ICE while they were on the job.

“With yesterday’s tragic news, we are calling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions,” the letter states.

Target’s new CEO Michael Fiddelke officially took the reins on Sunday. Just last week, he joined executives from other companies such as Best Buy and General Mills in signing an open letter which called for an “immediate de-escalation of tensions” in Minnesota. The letter came following the death of Alex Pretti at the hands of immigration enforcement officials. He is the second United States citizen to die in Minnesota by immigration enforcement agents.