Big Minnesota companies keep quiet as Trump’s immigration crackdown squeezes the state

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (Minnesota Reformer) — More than 100 Twin Cities clergy gathered at the skyway entrance to Target’s downtown Minneapolis headquarters Thursday to sing, pray and demand the retailer take a stronger stand against federal law enforcement activity in the metro and prevent agents from using its properties as staging grounds.

“We are shopping elsewhere, we shall not be moved,” the group chanted. ISAIAH, a nonprofit coalition of Minnesota faith and community groups, organized the demonstration.

By evening, the group said outgoing Target CEO Brian Cornell had agreed to meet with them Monday. But “there is no cause for celebration until Target leadership has leveraged their power and done their part to meaningfully protect their workers, their customers, and the communities in the state they call home,” they added.

Target management has kept a low profile since the Trump administration ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities last month. The company remained silent after video surfaced on Jan. 8 of federal agents arresting two Target employees at a Richfield store as a raucous crowd gathered around. Democratic-Farmer-Labor Rep. Michael Howard, who represents Richfield, later told media that the pair were U.S. citizens.

Last weekend, several carloads of federal agents — including U.S. Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino — descended on a Target in St. Paul. Bystander video showed agents standing guard outside the men’s room as shoppers heckled them.

Target representatives did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

Other big Minnesota employers have largely followed Target’s lead, remaining quiet even after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good on a south Minneapolis street last week.

In addition to Target, the Reformer reached out to UnitedHealth Group, 3M, General Mills, Medtronic, U.S. Bank and the Minnesota Business Partnership, an advocacy group for the state’s largest private employers. None of the companies responded by press time. A representative for the Minnesota Business Partnership responded but did not provide any comment on the record.

“Corporate and political leaders are seriously underestimating how mad Minnesotans are about the ongoing federal attacks,” Jake Schwitzer, executive director of the Twin Cities-based progressive policy research firm Northstar Policy Action, said in an email.

The corporate heavies are confronting a nearly impossible choice: President Donald Trump is known to use his considerable power over tariffs and tax and regulatory enforcement to reward companies in his good graces and punish those that oppose him. Target, 3M and other big companies are especially vulnerable to tariff rates; UnitedHealth is facing federal scrutiny in a number of highly regulated business units.

The companies are also still bruised from the aftermath of the police murder of George Floyd, when many of them made significant commitments around diversity, equity and inclusion. The political winds shifted quickly, however, with right-wing media and consumers targeting companies that took up social justice goals. When Target reversed course on DEI after Trump’s election in 2024, the company faced another backlash and boycott, this time from progressives.

The federal law enforcement surge has already significantly disrupted Minnesota’s economy, Schwitzer said in an analysis posted Wednesday.  Immigrants account for about 1 in 12 Minnesota residents but roughly 1in 9 of its workers, meaning actions that compromise their safety and freedom of movement disproportionately affect business activity in the state, he said.

Roughly 4 in 5 businesses along key commercial corridors in Minneapolis and St. Paul have closed during the past week as employees lay low, and revenue is down nearly across the board, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported Tuesday. Immigration raids at suburban construction sites have disrupted homebuilding activity in the region, according to Twin Cities Business.

Murals cover the side of Milagro’s Beauty Salon along East Lake Street in Minneapolis Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

“Right now, many businesses in Minnesota are seeing fewer customers and struggling to staff shifts,” Richard Trent, executive director of Main Street Action, said in a statement Wednesday. “Owners need their employees to feel safe coming to work and their customers to feel comfortable walking through the door.”

Trent’s group represents about 1,500 small businesses in Minnesota.

In an interview, Howard said he has been engaging privately with Target leadership for weeks. Though he declined to characterize the substance of those conversations, he said Target and other large employers should follow the lead of smaller businesses and “take a stronger stance” to assert their rights as private enterprises.

“There are things that some businesses have done … that we think all businesses should do as a matter of practice,” Howard said.

He said those measures could include putting up signs saying immigration agents aren’t welcome without judicial warrants; more clearly communicating with customers about how they engage with federal authorities; and implementing “training protocols to protect their workers and staff.”

Howard acknowledged that big, well-known companies may be reluctant to speak out against an administration that has shown itself to be “vindictive” toward critics, corporate or otherwise. Trump’s Justice Department has investigated, indicted or attempted to indict individual critics like former FBI director James Comey, New York attorney general Letitia James and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, among many others.

“It’s corporate culture, in general, that where businesses can stay silent and out of the public frame, that is the default,” Howard said.

But he added that taking a stronger stance may be the right move from a business standpoint. The ISAIAH demonstration suggested a backlash could be building against brands seen as timid or out of step with a public that recent polls show is broadly opposed to heavy-handed federal policing.

Schwitzer warned that things could get much worse if Trump succeeds in his efforts to cut off federal funding to “sanctuary” cities and states — including Minnesota — next month.

“This isn’t going to blow over, and silence from corporate and political leaders won’t protect their constituents, employees, or customers,” he said.

(Story written by Brian Martucci – Minnesota Reformer)