Target was thrust into the national spotlight last week after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot a man in the Bronx, not far from one of its stores. The retailer stated it has no formal ties to the agency after New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused it of letting ICE set up operations in its parking lot.
The situation highlights a predicament for retailers, whether they are property owners or tenants, at a time of elevated immigration enforcement.
In a Thursday statement condemning the shooting, Ocasio-Cortez added a demand that Target “stop offering their Bronx properties as private staging sites for ICE, in compliance with requests from New York officials.”
“Target opening up large, active retail parking lots for paramilitary activity is unacceptable and places the entire community at risk,” she also said.
But in an email to ESG Dive’s sister publication Retail Dive on Friday, the retailer denied this, stating, “Target has no cooperative agreements with ICE or any other immigration enforcement agency."
A Target spokesperson said she was unaware of any operational staging area set up by ICE at its Marble Hill shopping center location, which is close to the site of the shooting. On Friday afternoon, nobody answered the phone at that location.
A group of Bronx elected officials on Oct. 5 sent a letter to property owner Kingsbridge Associates asking the company to “take measures to prohibit ICE from using the parking lot for staging, absent access required by law.”
Target co-owns the property, the Target spokesperson confirmed. A request for comment emailed to a managing partner at Kingsbridge was not immediately returned; a phone number for Kingsbridge was disconnected.
Target is not disputing what the officials describe in their letter, but the company has no evidence of a large ICE staging area established there, and has not agreed to host such an area, the spokesperson said. ICE did not immediately respond to questions about its use of the Target parking lot.
The shooting by ICE occurred in the area just days after the local officials sent their request.
Target doesn’t have an agreement with ICE, but also cannot legally interfere with law enforcement activity, the spokesperson said by phone. When asked whether the retailer or store management would request that ICE or any law enforcement agency not use its parking lot for operational purposes, the spokesperson declined to comment.
This is not a surprise because the situation is practically unheard of, according to Bryn Feller, managing director and senior vice president at commercial real estate firm Northmarq. Establishing a staging area or other operational behavior by law enforcement could be tantamount to tenancy of some kind, but this is not a situation that landlords are used to grappling with, she said by phone.
Target is likely attempting to avoid attention by saying as little as possible, distancing itself from any formal agreement with ICE and hoping the news cycle moves on, Feller said. This could be especially touchy for the retailer, which angered people across the political spectrum with its shifting policies on Pride Week and diversity, she said.
But retailers probably need to think about what they would say or do if law enforcement agents, including ICE, were to set up shop on property they own or lease, according to Feller.
“If I'm a national retailer — whether it's Walmart or Kroger or anyone — I'm seeing this, and I'm creating a policy right away,” she said. “The reason I'm creating a policy is, if this happens to me, I can point to it and say, ‘Oh, I'm just honoring the policy I came up with in October of 2026,’ versus having to make the decision on the spot. I think it's really unprecedented and very salient for all retailers to be thinking about right now.”
