More than 450 tech workers from companies like Google, Meta, OpenAI, Amazon, and Salesforce have signed a letter urging their CEOs to call the White House. They are demanding that United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, leave U.S. cities.
The open letter states that for months, federal agents have been sent to cities to criminalize residents, neighbors, friends, colleagues, and family members. It describes armed and masked agents bringing reckless violence, kidnapping, terror, and cruelty from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to Chicago with no end in sight.
Minneapolis has become the focal point of a large-scale federal immigration operation. The tactics are so intense that many have characterized it as a military occupation. The operation has seen confrontations between federal agents and community members protesting the raids. Law enforcement has indiscriminately deployed crowd control tactics, including pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, and sound cannons.
The letter argues this cannot continue and that the tech industry can make a difference. It points to a precedent from October, when Trump threatened to send the National Guard to San Francisco. Tech industry leaders called the White House, and it worked, with Trump backing down.
This campaign among tech workers began after ICE agents shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis three weeks ago. It grew over the weekend after Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital.
The organizers of the letter did not disclose their names, and many who signed did so anonymously out of fear of retribution.
A number of tech leaders have already spoken out against federal actions in Minneapolis. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman said the way ICE operates is terrible for the people. Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla called the current enforcement macho ICE vigilantes running amuck empowered by a conscienceless administration. Google DeepMind’s chief scientist Jeff Dean called for every person regardless of political affiliation to denounce the escalation of violence. OpenAI’s head of global business, James Dyett, criticized the industry’s silence, noting there is far more outrage from tech leaders over a wealth tax than masked ICE agents terrorizing communities.
Signal President Meredith Whittaker bemoaned that masked agents are executing people in the streets and powerful leaders are openly lying to cover for them. She called on everyone in her industry who has ever claimed to value freedom to draw on the courage of their convictions and stand up.
Still, many of the most powerful figures in tech have not only largely stayed quiet about opposition to the Trump administration’s directives, but have actively attempted to curry favor with the president. Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg all attended President Trump’s inauguration and donated to the inauguration fund either personally or through their corporations. None have spoken out publicly about the ramping up of ICE raids.
OpenAI president Greg Brockman and his wife Anna are also prominent donors to causes and candidates associated with President Trump and have refrained from speaking out. In keeping with his anti-immigration views, Elon Musk has actively supported ICE operations, calling protestors pure evil.
The letter also calls on tech CEOs to cancel all company contracts with ICE. This is a potentially expensive demand, as several tech firms currently hold contracts with ICE. Palantir is one of ICE’s most significant tech partners. Last year the company was awarded a 30 million dollar contract to build a new AI-driven surveillance platform called ImmigrationOS. Last year, facial recognition company Clearview AI signed a contract to provide ICE with facial-matching technology. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Oracle also provide cloud infrastructure to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, as well as IT services.