Local clergy and civil rights leaders with a big message on Thursday.
Faith and NAACP leaders from Minnesota, North and South Dakota, are urging peace in the wake of another ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday night.
"If you protest, protest peacefully," says Minneapolis NAACP President Cynthia Wilson. "If you agitate, you have to realize something comes with agitation. Throwing things at the police officers, spitting on them, that's considered assault. We're asking you to protest with respect and with peace."
They're also calling for peace, calling for protesters to not assault ICE officers or law enforcement.
"Our community is feeling tension, and now we call for peace," adds Bishop Richard Howell. "We call for peaceful protest and the right to express concern without causing further harm."
Reverend Richard Pittman is the president of the NAACP in Minnesota and the Dakotas. He called for Minnesota to be united.
"This is not a moment of blame, division, or finger pointing," adds Rev. Pittman. "This is a collective state issue that impacts all of us, urban and rural immigrants and native born, Black, Brown, white, and Indigenous. No community asked for this harm. No family wanted this pain."
At the same time, Minnesota clergy is marching on Target headquarters in downtown Minneapolis to demand that the company not comply with ICE.
They delivered a letter signed by 2,000 clergy nationwide that calls for the retailer to ban ICE from its properties.
The protest follows a series of tense confrontations and the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal agent, sparking demands for the corporation to use its "Fourth Amendment rights" to deny agents access without a judicial warrant.
Target, you also have not just a responsibility but an opportunity," says Professor of biblical studies at Bethel University Reverend Dr. Karen McKinney. "You have an opportunity to speak truth to power, and the truth we want you to speak is to say, get out ICE. Get out of Minnesota. You have the power to do that."
Religious leaders say the community is "under siege" and are urging the homegrown company to break its silence and stand with the community.
Last weekend, two U.S. citizens were forcibly arrested at a Target store in Richfield. Minnesota State Representative Michael Howard (DFL) says that federal agents were the aggressors in that incident, and told WCCO Radio's Adam Carter that type of action has been increasing in the past few weeks.