Hundreds of tech industry workers are asking their CEOs to stand up to the Trump administration’s weaponization of immigration forces and the subsequent violence that’s ensued.
In a letter signed by more than 400 employees from Apple, Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce, OpenAI, Nvidia and more, tech workers are demanding that their employers cancel all company contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, speak out publicly against the violence carried out by the agency’s officers, and use their leverage to call the White House and demand an end to the crackdown.
Protests against ICE’s brutal immigrant crackdown have been surging across the country over the past few months, but things have been especially intense in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where both Renee Good and Alex Pretti were murdered by ICE officers just three weeks apart.
The increasing cases of troubling violence against protesters and bystanders come after thirty-two people died while in ICE custody last year, in what was the agency’s deadliest year since 2004. Per the Guardian, ICE was holding more than 68 thousand immigrants in detention as of mid-December, even though roughly only a quarter of them had prior criminal convictions.
“For months now, Trump has sent federal agents to our cities to criminalize us, our neighbors, friends, colleagues, and family members,” the letter states. “This cannot continue, and we know the tech industry can make a difference.”
Silicon Valley has had unprecedented access to President Trump. Big tech CEOs have accompanied the President at almost every significant event in his second term thus far, from the inauguration to trade meetings with foreign governments. In the first year of his second term, Trump has made Silicon Valley interests a part of his trade approach and ensured a heavily pro-industry regulatory environment. While being promised a more friendly regulatory environment, CEOs have mostly avoided commenting on Trump’s actions in his second term and readily appeared at public events to promote the President’s agenda.
Tech companies have served up significant domestic and international wins for Trump, including for his immigration policy. Apple, for example, removed an app that allows users to track ICE activity at the behest of Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Palantir, whose CEO Alex Karp has vowed to use his “whole influence to make sure this country stays skeptical on migration,” built a $30 million surveillance platform for ICE. Six Apple employees have signed the letter, but no current Palantir employees have lent their endorsement as of Monday afternoon.
But there has at least been one instance in which tech CEOs have used their immeasurable influence to actually urge Trump to stand down. Back in October, Trump walked back his previous threats to increase the federal force in San Francisco after talking to his “friends,” aka tech executives, including the likes of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
“Today we’re calling on our CEOs to pick up the phone again,” the letter from tech industry professionals said. “We want to be proud to work in tech. We want to be proud of the companies we work for. We can and must use our leverage to end this violence.”
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