Anger spills into Target stores

Target finds itself once again mixed up in America’s latest rancorous political divide as it faces pressure from residents, clergy and others to respond after immigration agents tackled a store worker and shoved him into an SUV.

- KIM BHASIN JACEY FORTIN SHEILA M. ELDRED

Cellphone videos show that Border Patrol agents detained two employees at the Target store in Richfield, Minnesota, last week. Both employees appeared to have been filming the agents, and one of them had been directing expletives at them.

“I’m a US citizen!” one of the workers shouted as agents pushed him towards their sport utility vehicle. “US citizen! US citizen!”

In the days since, some residents of Richfield, a suburb just south of Minneapolis, have had mixed feelings about shopping at the store.

“It’s terrible,” said DeAnthony Jones, a shopper who had seen video footage of the episode. “I probably shouldn't be coming here and giving them my money.”

The retailer can’t seem to stop being boycotted, for one reason or another.

For years, Target's leaders have been addressed in impassioned petitions, and its stores used for viral videos, as demonstrators of all political stripes have beseeched the company to take a stand on a host of issues, including racism, gay rights and corporate diversity programmes.

And now, immigration enforcement. A spokesman for Target declined to comment. The company has yet to issue a public statement about the Richfield incident.

Last year, Mr Jones, who lives about five minutes from the store, briefly avoided Target for a different reason: The company had announced that it was ending its diversity, equity and inclusion goals. But the store carries products that Mr Jones said he could not find elsewhere, so he has returned.