Fact Check: Is viral video of people returning salt at Target stores to protest ICE true?

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: In mid-January 2026, a rumor spread across social media, claiming that people were buying salt from Target stores and returning it to protest against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The rumor circulated online via a clip showing several 'anti-ICE activists' standing in a queue inside a Target store to return salt. But is there any truth to this rumor? Let us find out below.

Claim: People buying salt from Target stores and returning it to protest ICE

Several X users shared a clip showing anti-ICE protesters lined up inside a Target store to return salt they recently bought. 

An X user @JebraFaushay shared the clip and wrote, "People are returning salt to their local Target stores in an act of solidarity against ICE. The woman filming this video says that ICE is kidnapping Target employees."

Similarly, another X user shared the same clip and mentioned, "Crazy libs in Edina, Minnesota, went and bought tons of salt just to return it to protest ICE. Annoying random workers to stick it to the man lol."

"Imagine having no life that you go to Target, purchase salt, then stand in line just to return it as a 'form of protest' towards a company more leftist than each and every one of them. This happened in Edina, MN, and all it proved was out of touch liberals love to annoy Target employees," wrote an X user @BasedBandita.

All the X posts shared the same clip and made the same claims.

Fact Check: Anti-ICE activists organized protests on January 17-18

The claims made in the online posts are true, as anti-ICE activists in Minnesota organized protests on January 17-18, where participants bought salt, symbolizing 'melting ICE', and then slowly returned it to store operations.

A video from an Edina Target shows approximately 70 people queued up for returns, matching the footage in the post.

Interestingly, similar incidents were reported at other stores also, like buying and returning ice scrapers at Home Depot in California. The motive is to disrupt business in response to ICE operations, including detentions near or on Target properties.

The event that took place at the Target store is real and is part of a broader anti-ICE activism in Minnesota amid recent immigration enforcement.

On January 13, clips went viral showing ICE agents detaining two Target employees at a store in Richfield, Minnesota. An employee shouted, "I'm a US citizen!" while being forced into an SUV after filming the agents and using expletives.