Target Toolkit

Target and Local Business 4th Amendment Workplace Toolkit (Share Far and Wide: https://bit.ly/4thAmendBizToolkit)

Welcome! This is an open community document to share resources for the campaign to turn Target into a 4th amendment workplace. These are also resources you can use when you visit other businesses, both local and franchises of bigger corporations like Chipotle. The emergency is here. This is the moment to ask your local Target location, coffee shop, grocery store, Chipotle, and anywhere else you go to become a 4th Amendment Workplace.

What are we calling on Target to do?

We are demanding:

  1. Target issue a public call that ICE must leave Minnesota now.
  2. The officer who killed Renee Good must be held legally accountable. That starts with a legitimate investigation with state involvement.
  3. No additional federal funding for ICE in the upcoming Congressional budget and ICE should be investigated for human and Constitutional violations of Americans and our neighbors.
  4. We call upon Target to become 4th Amendment businesses, cease economic relations with ICE and refuse ICE entry or using their property for staging grounds.  

Tue Jan 20: A Day of Accountability on the Delayed Response to Our Demands of Target - Meet With Your Local Target Store Manager ANYTIME TODAY!!

  • The meeting with Target was rescheduled to Thursday so the incoming CEO can be there. We need to keep the pressure on!
  • We are calling today’s mission: A Day of Accountability on the Delayed Response to Our Demands or Target!!
  • Make a visit to your local target to speak to the store manager about the delayed meeting and the need for a real response to our demands at the delayed meeting.
  • Be polite but firm.
  • Go when you can.
  • Take photos and post on social media and name the Target you went to
  • Invite 10 people to do the same and sign up actions to make the Day of Truth and Freedom as powerful as possible.
  • Make your +10 invites today! It matters and we need thousands of people with us.

Post on Social Media to Amplify the Rescheduled Meeting with Target CEO and Demanding No More Delays on Responding to Our Demands: Use this social media toolkit: A Day of Prayer and Fasting for Truth and Freedom - Social Toolkit 

Send a Letter to the Editor (LTE) Highlighting the Delayed Meeting Demanding that Target No Longer Delay Their Response to Our Demands

  • LTE should be uplifting our demands, connecting it to Target’s silence and that we demand better and hope they join Minnesotans in the Day of Truth and Freedom.
  • Including the title a recent article of the media outlet related to ICE at Target/their silence right now helps it to get published.  
  • These LTEs should be submitted by ASAP TODAY ideally to the following places: Star Tribune, Pioneer Press and a Rochester outlet (or another local newspaper).

  • Can’t leave your house today? Here are some ways to act:
  • Do a social media post about actions you’ve taken at Target stores so far and that we expect our demands met. Use hashtags #ICEOutOfMN   #ICEOutForGood  #DayOfTruthAndFreedom
  • Post on Next Door/local neighborhood social media group (Facebook, etc.) and share what’s been happening at Target, you look forward to hearing what happens with the meeting with Target CEO and you hope folks will join you in advancing the demands of Target
  • Write Letter to the Editor about what’s been happening with this target campaign and our demands at the following outlets (Star Trib, Pioneer Press, Rochester). Get this to Liam (lmcmahon@isaiahmn.org) by 11am on Mon Jan 19
  • If the newspaper has an article they’ve published about Target, include the title of that article in your letter to the editor to increase the chances of it getting published.

Why are we Targeting Target?

On Thursday, January 8th, Customs and Border Patrol assaulted and kidnapped two US citizens while they were working a shift at the Richfield, MN Target store. On Sunday, January 11th, Customs and Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino entered the Midway Target in Saint Paul, MN, along with a team of agents to apparently film propaganda. Target is Minnesota’s leading corporate citizen. It is the 4th largest employer in the state. Minnesota’s sports teams play in stadiums and jerseys with Target’s logo on them. Where Target leads, others follow. Our state is under occupation from federal agents, and they are attacking Minnesotans quite literally inside of Target stores. We need Target to stand with Minnesotans against these attacks.

Engaging Target

Across the state, Minnesotans are going to their local Target stores and asking to speak to the manager. And you can too! Organize a group of 5 (or 10, or 20) people to go with you to your local Target store. Not sure where that is? Look it up here. Go inside, find someone on staff and ask if you all can speak to the manager. Share the following asks, and hand them the 4th amendment workplace sign and a copy of the signed community letter. Ask them to pass your demands along to Target Corporate. In this interaction, it’s good to be friendly but firm.

Have you already done this at your local Target? Try going to another in the area, or go back and see if you get a different response from the store manager.

Also consider having conversations with other patrons on their way in and out of Target. Most Targets will have a public stretch of sidewalk, potentially on the edge of the parking lot. Stop folks on their way in and out of Target, and ask if they think that Target should stand with Minnesotans. If they do, invite them to sign this petition: https://bit.ly/4qOdej9 

What is the 4th amendment?

The 4th amendment to the US Constitution states the following: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath of affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

What that means in practice is that federal agents do not have the legal right to show up unannounced at private spaces like a home or a business and demand entry without a warrant signed by a judge. The 4th Amendment was ratified in the US Constitution as part of the Bill of the Rights in 1791. The Framers of the Constitution recognized the importance of having explicit, named legal protection against unreasonable search and seizure because they had direct experience of that from the British.

What does it mean to be a 4th Amendment Workplace?

4th Amendment Workplaces implement measures to reduce the risk of unconstitutional entry by federal agents. This helps to keep workers and patrons safer, and ensure more people know their rights in the event federal agents do show up. 4th Amendment Workplaces train employers and employees on what rights we all have under the 4th amendment, and how to protect against unlawful search and seizure.

That means training on how to interact with federal agents, how to safeguard employees if federal agents enter illegally, and how to avoid revealing private information about employees.

Here is a helpful story about a local McDonalds who practiced their 4th Amendment rights.

Engaging local businesses

Any workplace can become a 4th Amendment Workplace. It is powerful to engage workplaces that both do and do not have workers at higher risk from ICE. Building a community groundswell of support – and demonstrating broad support for 4th Amendment Workplaces – helps keep us all safe. We are learning from allies across the country who’ve worked to recruit businesses as 4th Amendment Workplaces, and the most powerful way to ask is through a personal invitation. Go to businesses that you frequent and where you have relationships with staff.

If you’re thinking about where to go, map out the businesses where you have personal relationships. It might be your neighborhood coffee shop, or a place across town where a friend works. Within your list of businesses where you have a relationship, think about prioritizing businesses that have some of the following characteristics:

  • High Profile: When people think of your neighborhood, your town, your city, they think of this place.
  • High Visibility: They’re visible from a road or a sidewalk that gets foot or car traffic, or have a notable online presence.
  • Share our Values: They’re known for being pro-worker and pro-immigrant.

What should you ask your local businesses to do?

When you go to speak to a local business, it’s important to frame the conversation around shared values and care for our communities. Look to establish shared concerns about the crisis situation we’re all living for, and that this is a powerful way to show up for our neighbors. Ask local businesses to put up 4th Amendment Workplace signs in their windows, and to share information with their workers about the rights that we all have under the 4th Amendment.

Additionally, ask local businesses to participate in the January 23rd Day of Truth and Freedom. This is a day when Minnesotans are standing together to say that enough is enough, we need ICE out, and we’re going to demonstrate that by withholding our time, our money, and our labor. No work. No school. ICE Out. Businesses can participate by committing to close on Friday, January 23rd and post signs stating they will be closed and on January 23rd.

What Can Businesses Do as 4th Amendment Workplaces?

Businesses wanting to become 4th Amendment Workplaces can do it by taking several steps: 1) Post a 4th Amendment Workplace sign at entrances to your business stating that federal agents are not welcome without a warrant 2) Meet with staff to train them on their rights and how to take basic workplace protections 3) Create a plan for how to respond if ICE shows up 4) Separate public and private spaces in a business. There is more information about how businesses can respond here.

It’s important to post signs demonstrating commitment to be a workplace that protects community members as well as having specific language about denying access to federal law enforcement without a warrant signed by a judge in private areas. If you are a business that only has public spaces, you can still post signs stating that all community members except ICE are welcome.

Why post signs publicly?

A preemptive statement that ICE cannot enter private space creates the conditions for any entry by ICE into that private space to be illegal. This can dissuade officers from entering in the first place, or it can create conditions for any subsequent kidnapping and detention to be illegal. It creates an extra layer of safety for staff and patrons who may fear coming to work or visiting a business. It also creates a climate in a neighborhood, in a town, or in a city where more businesses should be doing the same thing.