Almost a thousand Google employees have signed an open letter criticising the company’s work with US immigration enforcement agencies, calling on the tech giant to be more transparent about its contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and to eventually sever those ties.
The letter titled "Googlers Demand: Worker Safety and ICE Contract Transparency" states employees are “appalled by the violence” carried out during recent immigration enforcement operations and “horrified” by what they describe as Google’s role in enabling it.
It cites the recent killings of Keith Porter, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, arguing that the company’s technology is being used in ways that contribute to surveillance and repression.
Also Read: Who was Alex Pretti? What we know about the 37-year-old man shot in Minneapolis
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“Google is powering this campaign of surveillance, violence, and repression,” the letter reads.
Employees allege that Google Cloud supports CBP surveillance efforts and that the company helps power Palantir’s ImmigrationOS system, which is used by ICE. The letter also claims that Google’s generative AI tools are being used by CBP and that the Google Play Store has blocked apps designed to track ICE activity.
The signatories pointed to a January social media post by Google’s Chief Scientist Jeff Dean, who wrote, “We all bear a collective responsibility to speak up and not be silent when we see things like the events of the last week.”
“We are vehemently opposed to Google’s partnerships with DHS, CBP, and ICE,” the employees wrote, adding that Google’s leadership has an ethical responsibility to fully disclose all contracts and collaborations with immigration authorities and to divest from them.
The open letter was published on Friday and signed by nearly 1,000 full-time Google employees. Talking to the BBC after its release, a Google employee of seven years, who identified himself as Alex, said it was “mind-boggling” that the company continued to maintain its ties with immigration enforcement bodies.
“I was proud to be working at a company with a moral compass. I’m not proud anymore,” he said.
Also Read: US businesses break their silence after latest Minnesota ICE shooting
The push from Google staff comes amid broader unrest across the tech industry. Just two weeks earlier, employees from companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Meta signed a similar letter urging tech firms to stop supporting the federal immigration crackdown.
Over the past year, the Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement operations, sending armed ICE and CBP agents into several US cities. Some of these operations have turned deadly, including cases in which US citizens observing federal agents were killed.
Another Google employee, who identified herself as “S”, said she would not have joined the company had she known about its work with federal agencies. “This is not the company I signed up to work for – I would have never interviewed to work for a military contractor,” she told the BBC.
Employees are also asking Google to pull its technology from DHS, ICE and CBP, introduce protections such as flexible work policies and immigration support for workers, and hold a company-wide meeting to address concerns around government contracts.
Also Read: OpenAI's Altman, Apple's Cook become latest CEOs to criticise ICE after Minneapolis killing
Google has faced similar internal pushback before. In 2018, following protests from thousands of employees, the company scrapped Project Maven, a Pentagon contract linked to drone technology.
The company continues to work with the US government through cloud contracts and partnerships, including with defence contractor Lockheed Martin to deploy its Gemini AI models, and with Palantir, which provides technology used by DHS, ICE, CBP and the US military, according to the BBC.
The letter titled "Googlers Demand: Worker Safety and ICE Contract Transparency" states employees are “appalled by the violence” carried out during recent immigration enforcement operations and “horrified” by what they describe as Google’s role in enabling it.
It cites the recent killings of Keith Porter, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, arguing that the company’s technology is being used in ways that contribute to surveillance and repression.
Also Read: Who was Alex Pretti? What we know about the 37-year-old man shot in Minneapolis
(Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates)
“Google is powering this campaign of surveillance, violence, and repression,” the letter reads.
Employees allege that Google Cloud supports CBP surveillance efforts and that the company helps power Palantir’s ImmigrationOS system, which is used by ICE. The letter also claims that Google’s generative AI tools are being used by CBP and that the Google Play Store has blocked apps designed to track ICE activity.
The signatories pointed to a January social media post by Google’s Chief Scientist Jeff Dean, who wrote, “We all bear a collective responsibility to speak up and not be silent when we see things like the events of the last week.”
The open letter was published on Friday and signed by nearly 1,000 full-time Google employees. Talking to the BBC after its release, a Google employee of seven years, who identified himself as Alex, said it was “mind-boggling” that the company continued to maintain its ties with immigration enforcement bodies.
“I was proud to be working at a company with a moral compass. I’m not proud anymore,” he said.
Also Read: US businesses break their silence after latest Minnesota ICE shooting
The push from Google staff comes amid broader unrest across the tech industry. Just two weeks earlier, employees from companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Meta signed a similar letter urging tech firms to stop supporting the federal immigration crackdown.
Over the past year, the Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement operations, sending armed ICE and CBP agents into several US cities. Some of these operations have turned deadly, including cases in which US citizens observing federal agents were killed.
Another Google employee, who identified herself as “S”, said she would not have joined the company had she known about its work with federal agencies. “This is not the company I signed up to work for – I would have never interviewed to work for a military contractor,” she told the BBC.
Employees are also asking Google to pull its technology from DHS, ICE and CBP, introduce protections such as flexible work policies and immigration support for workers, and hold a company-wide meeting to address concerns around government contracts.
Also Read: OpenAI's Altman, Apple's Cook become latest CEOs to criticise ICE after Minneapolis killing
Google has faced similar internal pushback before. In 2018, following protests from thousands of employees, the company scrapped Project Maven, a Pentagon contract linked to drone technology.
The company continues to work with the US government through cloud contracts and partnerships, including with defence contractor Lockheed Martin to deploy its Gemini AI models, and with Palantir, which provides technology used by DHS, ICE, CBP and the US military, according to the BBC.
