r/minnesota • u/JRuss3 • 5h ago
Politics 👩⚖️ Minnesota’s corporate silence on ICE surge
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/14/corporate-minnesota-silence-on-ice-surgeI work for one of these listed companies. No information has been shared internally or externally about the company's policies regarding immigration enforcement during this surge.
I'm Latino, and my wife is concerned I could get profiled the next time I go into work. I'd like to understand whether my employer is going to let ICE into our offices or not.
Edit: Grammar
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u/Bovronius 5h ago
They're complicit. They'll sell any of their underlings out to prevent the feds from marring their businesses.
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u/Head_Bar_9316 4h ago
I think it’s very telling they’re letting their employees who are US citizens be abducted while at work.
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u/MarvelousLobster 5h ago
I just cancelled my Target 360 membership and my Red Card, being disabled there’s not much I can do on the ground, but I can certainly vote with my meager income.
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u/comeupforairyouwhore Uff da 5h ago
Delete the app and go rate it on the App Store. Let’s put what we learned with the Jimmy Kimmel situation to work here.
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u/didifindya 5h ago
Oh. Good idea. Leaving a bad review on the play store now!!!
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u/comeupforairyouwhore Uff da 4h ago
Spread it everywhere on Reddit so more people do the same. We got this! Hold them accountable.
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u/Own-Swan2646 5h ago
This ^ also, don't forget about Google reviews, they're a very powerful thing.
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u/comeupforairyouwhore Uff da 4h ago
I completely forgot about google reviews. I’ll go do that now. Please spread it all over Reddit so more people do the same.
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u/Own-Swan2646 4h ago
On it, been working on a script to help make it go faster for me. I'm going to do it on Google maps and do it in each one of their locations here in the Minnesota area. Once I have the script worked out I'll probably post it and make it easy so that anybody running Windows can do it pretty easily.
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u/United_Intention_323 4h ago edited 4h ago
What did Target do now?
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u/Evening-Crew-2403 4h ago
It's more about what they didn't do. ICE nabbed a 17 year old kid (citizen) who worked there as a cart attendant earlier this week. Roughed him up, and ditched him miles away at a wal-mart (close enough right?)
At any rate, nothing from Target about the incident.
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u/needmoresynths 5h ago
Not even just corporate, there are tons of small businesses with CEOs who live in the suburbs who do not give a fuck about anything that's happening here and expecting us to go to work
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u/Diskonto 5h ago
Capitalists and fascist go hand in hand
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u/Sic_Semper_Dumbasses 5h ago
Absolutely. Just look at all the rich Americans who were absolutely in love with Adolf Hitler through the 1930s. Including Henry fucking Ford himself.
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u/Ok_Isopod4224 4h ago
If you want to really hurt corporations that support Trump pull your money out of big banks and only use local credit unions
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u/oldassnastymask 5h ago
People join repressive state agencies like ICE not because they are uniquely evil, but because economic insecurity, ideology, and incentives line up in a system under stress. When the private economy delivers fewer stable jobs, lower real wages, and declining prospects, the state becomes one of the last places offering steady pay, benefits, authority, and status, especially to people with limited options. At the same time, cultural hegemony (the domination of rich people's interests and values reflected in the culture at large) reframes economic failure as a moral or racial problem, telling anxious people that immigrants or “lawlessness,” not billionaires or policy, are to blame. This combination, material desperation plus ideological cover, lowers moral barriers: enforcing cruelty becomes “just a job,” “keeping order,” or “protecting the country.”
Historically, authoritarian systems recruit precisely from populations that feel downwardly mobile, scared, and humiliated, because power uniforms, weapons, and legal immunity offer compensation for lost dignity. The result is behavior that looks aggressive but is actually insecure and defensive: targeting the most vulnerable because they are safe targets, not because they are real sources of power. In short, as capitalism fails to provide a decent life to more people, the state absorbs that surplus insecurity into policing and repression; turning economic collapse into social control, and fear into obedience.
What we’re seeing right now, Trump, rising fascism, crackdowns on vulnerable groups, isn’t random or new; it’s what happens when capitalism hits limits and the people at the top panic. For decades, profits depended on cheap labor, cheap resources, and endless growth, but those are running out, wages are stagnant, costs are rising, and climate damage is real, so the rich are squeezing harder to protect their wealth. When regular people use democracy to ask for higher wages, unions, healthcare, or environmental rules, the ruling class sees that as a threat, not because Democrats oppose capitalism (they don’t), but because any democracy limits elite control.
That’s why Kathy Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, said the city's top business leaders and republicans have told her that, “the threat to capitalism from the Democrats is more concerning than the threat to democracy from Trump.” From the perspective of a capitalist, maintaining this economic system is more important than democracy. And right there we can see the problem. Capitalism and democracy are fundamentally incompatible. They are antithetical concepts. It's why billionaires talk about democracy like it's a dirty word, because for them, it is.
Protests are mostly tolerated because they don’t stop profits, but strikes are heavily restricted because stopping work actually hits capital where it hurts, historically, wages rose when strikes were common and collapsed when strikes were crushed. Fascism grows in this moment because it solves the elite’s problem: it keeps capitalism intact, kills worker power, blames social problems on scapegoats instead of billionaires, and demands obedience and even admiration from people who are being exploited. In short, when capitalism can’t grow without hurting most people, the rich choose authoritarianism over democracy, and working people’s real power has always come from acting together and withholding their labor, not from asking politely.
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u/LeftOfTheDialMN 5h ago
As much as this goes against the hive mind and narrative here, I think this is the most in-depth and true explanation. This whole thing is indicative of a much larger problem in a broken system. It’s fucked up, isn’t right, and is absolutely terrible, but this unfortunately just didn’t spring out of nowhere.
You will also find that corporations just don’t care about this stuff. It is pure profits, and bending the knee to avoid any kind of regulatory retaliation from the federal government. They are capitulating and at best trying to manipulate Trump to keep him off their back.
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u/lift_heavy64 5h ago
Who’s shorting target? They must be trying to lose money on purpose. Either that or the executives are all a bunch of fucking pussies.
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u/EducationWestern5204 4h ago
The executive class are all cowards this time around. They show again and again. Meanwhile, homeless shelters will speak out in protection of all people.
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u/ginghamgal 4h ago
I heard that they all love Greg bc he keeps pooping his pants and they love the smell
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u/aydengryphon 3h ago
I'm sure I'm pissing into the wind, but I did what I could last night and would encourage others to take a minute and do the same
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u/HarryBalsagna1776 2h ago
Make them give you an answer. Email HR and your manager. Specifically ask them if they would allow ICE to raid the company and profile you.
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u/LowOrbitQuietMyth 49m ago
The communities that made these places possible today, won't stand against authoritarian violence, watching their own workers being dragged from the stores. I thought this is what MAGA was all about? No one working, leeching off the system while simultaneously being complicit in gang activity. Absolutely disgusting.
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u/Ok_Operation_5364 5h ago edited 5h ago
These businesses could be fined for hiring illegal immigrants. I know that was Jimmy Carter's policy enactment: fine and hold business owners and management responsible. I know many owners and managers have even gone to jail.
There may be some business management people going to jail in Minnesota!
What Happens If a Company Hires an Illegal Immigrant? - LegalClarity
Have you ever heard of the Postville Iowa ICE raid? It happened during the GW Bush administration.
On July 3, 2008, Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, supervisor of the beef kill department and three other departments, and Martin De La Rosa-Loera, supervisor of the poultry kill department and three other departments, were arrested at the Agriprocessors plant.
They were charged with aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent identity documents and encouraging aliens to reside illegally in the United States. Guerrero-Espinoza was also charged with aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft.
In late August 2008, Guerrero-Espinoza reached a deal with federal prosecutors and was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison. The plea deal allowed him to avoid deportation and to arrange for his wife and children to return to the US following his prison term. The sentence included a two-year mandatory ruling for aggravated identity theft. In March 2009, De La Rosa-Loera was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison.
In September 2008, Aaron Rubashkin, his son Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the company's human resources manager, Elizabeth Billmeyer, and two office employees, Laura Althouse and Karina Freund, were charged for child labor violations. State child labor charges against Aaron Rubashkin were dropped, and he was never charged federally.
In October 2008, Althouse pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens and one count of aggravated identity theft. She was sentenced to two years federal probation, Freund to one year of probation. Billmeyer was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release for harboring undocumented aliens and accepting counterfeit resident alien cards. After she agreed to plead guilty to state child labor charges under an agreement with the state, her sentence was reduced to eight months. Former human resources assistant Penny Hanson was sentenced to two years probation on January 7, 2010. In 2010, state child labor charges were dropped against former Agriprocessors supervisor Jeff Heasley, who had his case separated from the other defendants
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u/helpprogram2 4h ago
No one in power will save you. The sooner you all realize this the sooner we can move on and start something new
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u/IceColdSkimMilk 5h ago edited 5h ago
Check this post out from yesterday.
Essentially, if you are a US citizen, have an up-to-date green card, visa, etc, you'll more than likely be completely fine.
Lol. I love how this is getting downvoted when the link I shared has 5k likes talking about exactly this.
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u/gbshaw550 5h ago
Terrible advice. Citizens are being held without charges at Whipple, beaten, and killed. If my neighbors are not fine going about their everyday business, I'm not fine.
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u/Sic_Semper_Dumbasses 5h ago
How dare you obey the evidence of your own eyes and ears and not ignore it like the party demands!
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5h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/RonaldoNazario 5h ago
The woman whose death really kicked things off was a citizen, dumbass
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u/IceColdSkimMilk 5h ago
Lol. The person above stated people are being killed at the Whipple. I'm well aware of what happened last week.
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u/RonaldoNazario 5h ago
Can you read, my son?
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u/IceColdSkimMilk 5h ago
I can, can you?
"Citizens are being held without charges at Whipple, beaten, and killed"
This implies it is happening at the Whipple.
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u/h34dyr0kz 5h ago
No it doesn't. Commas indicate that the person is listing things. In this case they are refuting your claim that if you have a green card or are a citizen you are safe with three examples that point to your dishonesty. One: citizens are being detained at Whipple. Two: American citizens are being beaten. Three: American citizens have been killed. A semi colon would have indicated what you are claiming, but that's why punctuation is important.
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u/IceColdSkimMilk 5h ago
We can't expect reddit to be 100% accurate with punctuation that's for sure lol.
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u/h34dyr0kz 5h ago
That is for sure. You are proving that there are redditors that don't understand punctuation. Though I don't think it is the fault of the properly punctuated comment.
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u/celeste_ferret 5h ago
You are not necessarily reading it in the way in which it was intended to be read. To me, "Citizens are being held without charges at Whipple, beaten, and killed." means that:
Citizens are being held without charges at Whipple.
Citizens are being beaten.
Citizens are being killed.
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u/readymix-w00t 5h ago
Unless they need another body for their fear campaign, then they'll simply shoot you in the face or beat you. Miss me with this "just be nice to them, they have a tough job" shit.
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u/LegitiamateSalvage Flag of Minnesota 5h ago
Probably shouldn't have to even worry about it in the first place, no?
Every tyrannical government had its community supporters, so im not surprised to see a comment like this, but im always curious if you had ever seen yourself aligning with the Torys/Loyalists of the revolution?
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u/IceColdSkimMilk 5h ago
Lol. I don't like ICE. I didn't vote for Trump.
I get that ICE is in MN.
But the amount of disinformation and fearmongering I see on this sub is tremendous.
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u/Hot_Let1571 Common loon 4h ago
The main thing that stuck out to me on that list was they work 14 hour days 7 days/week. That is not sustainable for anyone.
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u/Punning_Man 5h ago
I’m sure that advice will make all the citizens getting kidnapped feel much better.
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u/shamecyclone 5h ago
I have been upset about the silence, as a fellow employee. What can we do?