When Employees Draw Red Lines Against Their Own CEO

66,000 People in Detention—Is This Really a Joke?

Salesforce employees are passing around an internal letter to CEO Marc Benioff with an uncomfortable demand: cut ties with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The timing isn't coincidental. It came right after Benioff joked at the company's Las Vegas leadership event that ICE agents were "in the building monitoring" international employees.

The room didn't laugh. "Lots of people are furious," one employee told reporters, speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation. Another source said the internal backlash was more intense than when Benioff made controversial comments supporting Trump's call to deploy the National Guard in San Francisco last fall.

But this isn't just about a poorly timed joke. It's about what Salesforce has been quietly pitching to ICE behind the scenes.

The AI Pitch That Sparked Outrage

According to leaked documentation, Salesforce has been marketing its Agentforce AI platform to help ICE "expeditiously" hire 10,000 new agents and process tip-line reports. The employee letter calls this a "fundamental betrayal" of the company's commitment to ethical technology use.

The numbers are stark: ICE currently detains 66,000 people, with 73% having no criminal record. Employees argue that providing infrastructure to "scale a mass deportation agenda" crosses a moral line that no amount of revenue can justify.

Benioff's Political Tightrope Walk

Benioff's political evolution reflects the complexity many tech leaders face today. He supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, backed Democratic candidates including Kamala Harris in 2020, and championed progressive causes like San Francisco's homeless tax initiative.

But since Trump's return to the White House, Benioff has signaled a shift toward what he calls "nonpartisanship"—partly because he now owns Time magazine. He joked about "donating" Trump's Person of the Year cover photo for free use, a quip that didn't land well with employees already concerned about the company's direction.

Last fall, Benioff suggested deploying the National Guard to address San Francisco crime before his company's annual conference. After employee backlash, he apologized and later joined Nvidia's Jensen Huang in asking Trump to refrain from sending troops. Yet simultaneously, Salesforce was pitching ICE on expanding its workforce.

The Executive Exodus Question

The timing of recent departures raises questions. Slack CEO Denise Dresser left for OpenAI as chief revenue officer. Ryan Aytay, a 19-year Salesforce veteran and former Benioff chief of staff, announced his departure. AI executive Adam Evans and Chief Marketing Officer Ariel Kelman also recently exited.

Are these routine moves in a competitive talent market, or signs of deeper organizational tensions?

When Corporate Values Meet Employee Values

The employee letter specifically cites Benioff's unique influence in Washington, pointing to his apparent role in Trump's decision to call off ICE deployment in San Francisco last fall. They want him to use that influence as a "corporate statesman" to condemn what they call ICE's unconstitutional conduct.

This represents a new form of employee activism—not just demanding better working conditions, but actively challenging how their company's technology is used in the world. The letter asks for clear "red lines" barring Salesforce cloud and AI products from what employees term "state violence."