• by Tanya Gazdik , Yesterday

Target is facing protests after Immigration Customs Enforcement agents “aggressively and violently” detained two employees at one of the retailer’s locations in its home state of Minnesota, according to a local official. 

The detention occurred at the store in Richfield, Minnesota on Jan. 8 after a “confrontation that began in the parking lot and spilled into the vestibule, according to local officials and witness accounts,” reported the New York Post.  “Minnesota state Rep. Michael Howard said the agents entered the store without a warrant and physically detained the workers, while family members and witnesses alleged the incident amounted to racial profiling.”

One of the employees shouted, “I’m literally a U.S. citizen!” as agents escorted him toward a vehicle, The Wall Street Journal reported.

"Over 100 people gathered outside the Target on State Street holding signs with pictures of people who have been killed by Immigration Customs Enforcement," according to The (Purdue) Exponent. 

The employees were assisting customers at the mobile ordering pickup parking spaces when they were stopped by agents led by a senior U.S. Border Patrol commander, officials said.

Howard told Newsweek that both individuals detained during the enforcement action at the store in Richfield were injured and later released, describing the arrests as “pure madness” and criticizing what he called an escalation of federal enforcement in his community that he says has created fear. 

“The Richfield incident is one in a growing number of violent encounters between civilians and federal agents captured on video since the killing of Renee Nicole Good by the ICE officer Jonathan E Ross on 7 January,” according to The Guardian.  “Gregory Bovino, the senior US border patrol official who has become the public face of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement action in Minnesota and elsewhere, was present during the incident.”

According to Howard and video footage taken by witnesses, a team of ICE agents that had assembled at the Target forced two employees to the ground at the entrance to the store, then bundled them into a dark SUV.

“Target declined to comment,” according to The Minnesota Star Tribune. "The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Border Patrol arrested a U.S. citizen for assault.”