More than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies—including Target, Best Buy, 3M, General Mills, UnitedHealth, and all major state sports teams—signed an open letter calling for "an immediate deescalation of tensions" after Border Patrol agents killed a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis. The letter did not name ICE, President Trump, or the federal immigration operation directly. Critics noted the letter's careful neutrality. In the weeks following the Jan. 24, 2026 killing of Alex Pretti, Target faced protests in multiple states for failing to take a strong public stand against ICE.
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How to submitWhy this is Complicity
Instead of calling out the reckless violence of federal agents, the letter called for "deescalation," effectively blaming both agents and activists. A public statement might not normally be as consequential, but these companies are pillars of the business community in a city that had seen the killing of two Americans by federal agents in recent weeks.