*A group of more than 900 Google employees has publicly pushed back against the tech company’s involvement with U.S. immigration enforcement agencies. Through an open letter, the workers called on Google to both reveal and sever its contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, CNBC reports.
The deaths of Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE helped fuel the letter. Employees expressed that they are “appalled by the violence” and Google’s connection to it. “Google is powering this campaign of surveillance, violence, and repression,” the letter reads.
The workers raised pointed allegations about the company’s technological contributions to enforcement operations. They highlighted Google Cloud’s role in facilitating CBP surveillance and enabling Palantir’s ImmigrationOS platform, which ICE relies on. Additional concerns included CBP’s use of Google’s generative artificial intelligence and the blocking of ICE tracking apps on the Google Play Store.
“We are vehemently opposed to Google’s partnerships with DHS, CBP, and ICE,” the employees wrote. “We consider it our leadership’s ethical and policy-bound responsibility to disclose all contracts and collaboration with CBP and ICE, and to divest from these partnerships.”
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Among their demands, the workers urged Google to recognize threats its employees face from ICE, conduct an emergency company-wide Q&A about its DHS and military agreements, establish protections like flexible remote work options and immigration assistance, and make all government partnerships transparent.
“As workers of conscience, we demand that our leadership end our backslide into contracting for governments enacting violence against civilians,” the letter reads.
“Google is now a prominent node in a shameful lineage of private companies profiting from violent state repression. We must use this moment to come together as a Googler community and demand an end to this disgraceful use of our labor,” the staffers noted.
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