Several people were detained at Chicago\u2019s West Loop Target Thursday night amid a protest outside the store to demand the retailer publicly denounce U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it comes into the crosshairs over President Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportation campaign.<\/p>\n
The people were detained at the start of the protest as they tried to block exits and shut down the store, according to the People\u2019s Lobby, which organized the demonstration. Chicago police confirmed to the Tribune that seven adults, three men and four women, were each charged with criminal trespass to property.<\/p>\n
The protest, which brought out faith leaders and elected officials alongside dozens of demonstrators, was the latest in a series of actions that have sprung up across the Chicago area o<\/a>ver the past week in the wake of federal agents fatally shooting intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last weekend.<\/p>\n Carrying signs that read \u201cWhose side are you on?\u201d and \u201cStop corporate collusion with ICE,\u201d demonstrators pointed to Pretti\u2019s death and the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month as they called for Minneapolis-based Target to take a stronger stance against the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want to see corporations take up space and not show up for us,\u201d former environmental justice organizer Emilio Rodriguez said outside the store. \u201cWe know that they put profits over people, and we want to show that we\u2019re not standing for that.\u201d<\/p>\n The 26-year-old, who lives in Bridgeport, said that while Target is headquartered in Minneapolis, \u201cwe have to take a stance worldwide to show that \u2026 if (they) want to continue to make a profit, (they\u2019re) going to have to listen to us.\u201d<\/p>\n Target is among the companies that organizers with \u201cICE Out of Minnesota\u201d have asked to take stronger public stances over ICE\u2019s presence in the state.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, widely circulated videos showed federal agents detaining two Target employees in Minnesota. Target has not publicly commented on the videos, although its incoming chief executive, Michael Fiddelke, sent a video message to the company\u2019s more than 400,000 workers Monday, calling recent violence \u201cincredibly painful,\u201d without directly mentioning immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n Fiddelke also signed an open letter issued by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce<\/a> on behalf of more than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies on Sunday calling for \u201can immediate de-escalation of tensions.\u201d The letter stopped short of naming immigration enforcement directly.<\/p>\n As shoppers peered out from inside the West Loop Target, protesters chanted \u201cShut it down!\u201d and \u201cTarget is complicit, we do not shop or visit.\u201d<\/p>\n