Why 880 Google Workers Want ICE Contracts Canceled

More than 880Google employees and contractors have signed a petition demanding the company disclose and cancel any contracts with US immigration authorities. But this isn't just another workplace protest—it's a moral reckoning over whether the technology they build should power what they call "state violence."

The Conscience of Silicon Valley

The petition, unveiled Friday, targets Google's dealings with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The language is stark and uncompromising.

"We object to the technology we build being used to power state violence around the world," a Google software engineer told reporters, requesting anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Another staffer, who went by Alex, put it more personally: "I stand to benefit from other people's suffering, which I find abhorrent and I refuse to be a quiet participant in that system."

Google declined to comment on the petition's demands, though a company spokesperson emphasized that the technologies in question are "basic computing and data storage that are available to any customer." That response highlights the central tension: Can technology ever truly be neutral?

Trump's Deportation Machine Meets Tech Resistance

The petition comes as the Trump administration has ramped up its mass deportation campaign, sparking nationwide protests and intense scrutiny of immigration enforcement. In Minneapolis, confrontations between protesters and federal agents culminated in immigration officers fatally shooting two US citizens—incidents captured on video and widely shared online.

These aren't isolated concerns within Google. In 2019, nearly 1,500 workers signed a petition demanding the company suspend work with Customs and Border Protection until the agency stopped what they called human rights abuses. More recently, staff at Google's AI unit asked executives how they'd prevent ICE from raiding their offices. No immediate answers were provided.

A Pattern Across Big Tech

The resistance extends beyond Google. Employees at Palantir have raised internal questions about the company's ICE work, according to WIRED. Last month, over 1,000 people across the tech industry signed a letter urging businesses to dump the agency entirely.

Yet tech companies have largely defended their government work or pushed back on claims they're enabling concerning practices. Some contracts run through intermediaries, making it difficult for workers to track exactly which tools agencies use and for what purposes—a deliberate opacity that frustrates employee activists.

The New Petition's Specific Demands

The latest Google petition, organized by No Tech for Apartheid—a group opposing what they call "tech militarism"—makes three specific demands. First, Google leadership should publicly call for urgent changes to US immigration enforcement tactics. Second, the company should hold internal discussions about principles for selling technology to state authorities. Third, Google must take steps to protect its workforce, noting that immigration agents recently targeted an area near a Meta data center under construction.

These demands reflect a broader shift in how tech workers view their role. They're no longer content to "just build cool stuff"—they want accountability for how that stuff gets used.