By Hanna Krueger

After weeks of pressure from employees and customers, some business leaders are speaking out about the federal immigration crackdown that led to two deadly shootings in Minneapolis and have sparked protests around the country.

Their buzzword? De-escalation.

A handful of CEOs have made public statements this week and those that have, including Apple's Tim Cook and Target's incoming boss Michael Fiddelke, have echoed the term.

It was first expressed in a letter signed by 60 leaders of Minnesota companies, including Target, 3M and General Mills, that was published the day after federal agents fatally shot protester Alex Pretti.

"With yesterday's tragic news, we are calling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions," reads the Jan. 25 letter.

Most of the CEO statements that have followed have been brief. General Mills' Jeff Harmening shared his call for de-escalation in an 87-word post on LinkedIn. Cook's memo to staff was 158 words. They also largely avoided mentioning President Trump, ICE or either of the Minneapolis shooting victims: Pretti and Renee Good.

Cook's Tuesday evening memo, sent several days after he had visited the White House, told Apple employees he was "heartbroken by the events in Minneapolis" and declared: "This is a time for de-escalation."

By then Trump, himself, had used the term. In a Fox News interview on Tuesday, the president said his administration is "going to de-escalate a little bit" in Minnesota.

Asked on Wednesday if immigration enforcement had gone too far, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol told The Wall Street Journal that he was relieved to see tensions in Minneapolis start to ease and that leaders were communicating.

"What's good to see is that it is de-escalating and the right people are finally talking to each other, be it the president, the governor, the mayor," Niccol said in an interview. "Because I do think the de-escalation needs to happen."

The term "de-escalation" has become the default because "it's a reputational risk-management term that sounds humane while remaining politically noncommittal," said Michael Santoro, a business ethicist and professor at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University.

"It points to a process goal -- reduce conflict, restore order, keep people safe -- rather than a contested diagnosis of responsibility -- who is at fault, which agency acted improperly, whether an action was lawful," Santoro said.

The cautious approach stands in contrast to the way these same companies responded to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis in 2020. In a public statement, Target's then-CEO Brian Cornell called Floyd's death a "murder" and made mention of other Black Americans killed by police. In 2020, Apple's Cook signed a lengthy message titled "Speaking up on racism" in which he called out "the senseless killing of George Floyd" and committed to "creating a better, more just world for everyone."

Santoro said times have changed. "Today, corporate leaders feel a clearer risk of government retaliation and stakeholder polarization. Even the perception of risk can chill speech," he said.

In his video to Target staff this week, Fiddelke acknowledged the tumult engulfing the company's hometown before falling back on the familiar language of the joint letter. "The violence and loss of life in our community is incredibly painful," Fiddelke said in the video.

Target has faced protests from local clergy and politicians after two Target employees were detained at a store in a Minneapolis suburb. Both are American citizens and were later released.

Another hometown leader, UnitedHealth's Stephen Hemsley, discussed similar themes in a memo he sent to staff on Sunday. "The community here in Minnesota is enduring an extraordinarily difficult time," he wrote. "No one wants this situation to continue and we should all work to move toward peaceful de-escalation and resolution."

Far from Minnesota, a cadre of Silicon Valley scientists and founders were more strident. Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean wrote on X that the shooting of Pretti was "absolutely shameful" with "agents of a federal agency unnecessarily escalating, and then executing a defenseless citizen." Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah also posted on the platform: "Recent events -- a federal agent killing an ICU nurse for seemingly no reason -- shock the conscience."

These tech executives, none of them public-company CEOs, risk less blowback from private investors and customers, who have few alternatives to their products. "Often, large companies like Target or General Mills need to cater to both sides of the aisle in terms of customers and taking a specific side may be perceived as too dangerous," said CB Bhattacharya, a business economics professor at University of Pittsburgh, who specializes in corporate identity.

OpenAI founder Sam Altman walked a tightrope in his internal message to staff: He named ICE and stated that its actions had "gone too far." Altman also extended an olive branch to the White House, calling Trump a "very strong leader" and expressing hope he would "unite the U.S."

Write to Hanna Krueger at hanna.krueger@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 29, 2026 12:00 ET (17:00 GMT)

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