More Than 800 Google Workers Urge Company to Cancel Any Contracts With ICE and CBP | EUROtoday

More Than 880 workers and contractors working for Google signed a petition this week calling on the corporate to reveal and cancel any contracts it could have with US immigration authorities. In the letter unveiled on Friday, the employees stated they’re “vehemently opposed” to Google’s dealings with the Department of Homeland Security, which incorporates Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“We object to the technology we build being used to power state violence around the world,” a Google software program engineer, who declined to provide their identify out of concern of retaliation, instructed reporters on Friday.

“I stand to benefit from other people’s suffering, which I find abhorrent and I refuse to be a quiet participant in that system,” added a second Google staffer, who glided by Alex.

Google declined to touch upon the petition’s calls for. But an organization spokesperson, who requested anonymity out of concern for his or her security, says the applied sciences at challenge are fundamental computing and information storage which are accessible to any buyer.

US immigration authorities have been underneath intense public scrutiny this yr because the Trump administration ramped up its mass deportation marketing campaign, sparking nationwide protests. In Minneapolis, confrontations between protesters and federal brokers culminated within the deadly taking pictures of two US residents by immigration officers. Both incidents have been captured in broadly disseminated movies and have become a focus of the backlash. In the wake of the uproar, the Trump administration and Congress say they’re negotiating adjustments to ICE’s ways.

Some of the Department of Homeland Security’s most profitable contracts are for software program and tech gear from quite a lot of completely different distributors. A small share of employees at a few of these suppliers, together with Google, Amazon, and Palantir, have raised considerations for years about whether or not the expertise they’re growing is getting used for surveillance or to hold out violence.

In 2019, almost 1,500 employees at Google signed a petition demanding that the tech large droop its work with Customs and Border Protection till the company stopped partaking in what they stated have been human rights abuses. More lately, employees at Google’s AI unit requested executives to elucidate how they might stop ICE from raiding their workplaces. (No solutions have been instantly supplied to the employees.)

Employees at Palantir have additionally lately raised questions internally in regards to the firm’s work with ICE, WIRED reported. And over 1,000 individuals throughout the tech trade signed a letter final month urging companies to dump the company.

The tech firms have largely both defended their work for the federal authorities or pushed again on the concept they’re aiding it in regarding methods. Some authorities contracts run by intermediaries, making it difficult for employees to establish which instruments an company is utilizing and for what functions.

The new petition inside Google goals to resume stress on the corporate to, on the very least, acknowledge current occasions and any work it could be doing with immigration authorities. It was organized by No Tech for Apartheid, a bunch of Google and Amazon employees who oppose what they describe as tech militarism, or the combination of company tech platforms, cloud providers, and AI into army and surveillance techniques.

The petition particularly asks Google’s management to publicly name for the US authorities to make pressing adjustments to its immigration enforcement ways and to carry an inner dialogue with employees in regards to the rules they take into account when deciding to promote expertise to state authorities. It additionally calls for Google take extra steps to maintain its personal workforce secure, noting that immigration brokers lately focused an space close to a Meta information middle underneath development.

Updated: 2/6/25, 12:00 pm EST: This story was up to date with feedback from two Google employees and an organization spokesperson.