Target Protest in Richfield Links ICE Detentions and DEI Rollbacks
A Target protest in Richfield brought together immigration activists, community members, and cultural symbolism after organizers were warned they could be arrested for bringing protest signs into the store. The demonstration highlighted growing backlash against Target over its rollback of DEI commitments and its silence following the wrongful detention of two U.S. citizen workers by federal immigration agents. Protesters connected the moment to broader resistance against ICE, corporate complicity, and the role of culture in political dissent.
About 50 demonstrators with UnidosMN were warned by Target management and Richfield police Sunday that they would be arrested if they brought protest signs inside the store, including an image of the viral hat once worn by five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was wrongfully detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in January.
The warning came during a protest outside the Target at 6445 Richfield Parkway, exactly one month after federal agents wrongfully detained two U.S. citizen Target workers at the same location.
What unfolded was an unlikely collision of corporate power and cultural resistance. Target and Bad Bunny.
The pairing may seem unexpected, but organizers say the connection is deliberate. Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, condemned ICE during his Grammy acceptance speech after winning Best Música Urbana Album.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” Bad Bunny said. “We’re not savages. We’re not animals. We are humans. We are Americans.”
Target, the nation’s seventh-largest retailer, has faced mounting criticism for cutting funding tied to Black-owned businesses through the rollback of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion commitments and for remaining silent after two of its workers were detained by federal agents in early January.
Kathy Rappos carried a sign depicting Bad Bunny wearing the hat that belonged to Liam, a kindergartener who was detained by ICE while wearing a Spider-Man backpack and blue bunny ears. Liam’s middle name, Conejo, translates to rabbit in English.
Rappos described Target as a neighborhood institution and said she had shopped there since the Dayton family owned the Minnesota-based company.
“Now I don’t go there at all,” Rappos said. “I haven’t gone there since the DEI thing, and this with the two gentlemen that were pulled out of this location sickened me.”
When the Boycott Target movement gained traction in January 2025, Bad Bunny’s song “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” surged to No. 1. The title translates to “I should have taken more photos,” and reflects Bad Bunny’s critique of how tourism has reshaped Puerto Rico.
Bad Bunny later canceled U.S. mainland tour dates amid concerns that immigration agents could raid concerts.
Federal agents tackled two Target workers at the Richfield store, both U.S. citizens, including a 17-year-old. The men were later released but sustained injuries, according to state Rep. Michael Howard, DFL-Richfield, who confirmed their citizenship.
Melissa Melnick Gonzalez, a pastor who founded a bilingual Spanish-English ministry in Richfield, said the detentions underscore the need for sweeping immigration reform. Her son, Chris, was hired as a bagger at Target in St. Louis Park in 2012.
“I’ve been talking for a long, long time and demanding that we abolish ICE,” Gonzalez said. “But I truly believe we’re past that point. That ship has sailed. We need amnesty now, because every single human being is beloved of our Creator.”
For Rappos, the rupture feels personal.
“Target is like what H-E-B is for Texans. It used to be such a neighborhood thing,” she said. “They helped schools. They helped everybody. I used to shop there almost every day.”
Rappos, who is white, said she felt compelled to support DEI efforts and linked the current protests to a long history of resistance by marginalized communities.
“Brown and Black people have been doing this forever, and no one’s listening to them,” she said. “My parents are immigrants. They may have been white immigrants, but they are immigrants.”
For Gonzalez, the detentions have reopened old wounds following her son’s death years ago in the Mississippi River.
“I am living that trauma over and over again now,” she said, “as our community members, our children and youth, are being kidnapped and held in custody illegally, immorally, unethically.”
Andres Alvarez said he also no longer shops at Target.
“Since Target’s policies started leaning away from the rights of human beings, I stopped shopping there,” Alvarez said.
Rappos said nothing Target could do would win her back.
“If Target said they were giving those two gentlemen free college tuition or whatever, absolutely not,” she said. “They’re done in my book.”
Alvarez said he remains open to change.
“If they use their voice and stand in solidarity with workers and communities,” he said, “that would incentivize me to shop at Target again.”
Rappos disagreed.
“They had so much time to say something,” she said. “They were silent. They were ghosting. That’s complicity.”
Additional protests are scheduled Wednesday, Feb. 11, at Target stores across the Twin Cities and nationwide:
- East St. Paul, 1744 Suburban Ave., 1 p.m.
- Quarry, Richfield, Midway (St. Paul), Roseville, Edina, and Cottage Grove, 5 p.m.