More than 450 tech workers from companies like Google, Meta, OpenAI, Amazon, and Salesforce have signed a letter urging their CEOs to call the White House and demand that ICE leave our cities.
“For months now, Trump has sent federal agents to our cities to criminalize us, our neighbors, friends, colleagues, and family members,” states the open letter from IceOut.Tech. “From Minneapolis to Los Angeles to Chicago, we’ve seen armed and masked thugs bring reckless violence, kidnapping, terror, and cruelty with no end in sight.”
Minneapolis has become the center of a large-scale federal immigration operation, drawing comparisons to a military occupation due to its intensity. The operation has led to confrontations between federal agents and community members protesting the raids, with law enforcement using heavy-handed tactics such as pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, and sound cannons.
“This cannot continue, and we know the tech industry can make a difference,” the letter continues. “When Trump threatened to send the National Guard to San Francisco in October, tech industry leaders called the White House. It worked: Trump backed down.”
The campaign among tech workers gained momentum after ICE agents shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis three weeks ago, and further intensified after Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, over the weekend.
The organizers of the letter chose to remain anonymous, with many signers fearing retribution. TechCrunch has reached out for more information.
Several tech leaders have already voiced their opposition to federal actions in Minneapolis. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman criticized ICE’s operations as “terrible for the people,” while Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla described the current enforcement as “macho ICE vigilantes running amok, empowered by a conscienceless administration.” Jeff Dean, chief scientist at Google DeepMind, urged “every person regardless of political affiliation” to speak out against the increasing violence. James Dyett, head of global business at OpenAI, pointed out on X that tech leaders show more outrage over a wealth tax than over masked ICE agents terrorizing communities.
Signal President Meredith Whittaker lamented that masked agents are “executing people in the streets and powerful leaders are openly lying to cover for them. To everyone in my industry who’s ever claimed to value freedom — draw on the courage of your convictions and stand up.”
However, many influential tech figures have remained largely silent on opposing Trump and have actively sought to gain favor with the president to receive benefits from his administration. Notable leaders like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attended Trump’s inauguration and contributed to the inauguration fund, either personally or through their companies. None have publicly opposed the ongoing ICE raids.
OpenAI President Greg Brockman and his wife Anna have also been prominent donors to Trump-associated causes and candidates, and they have not spoken out against the actions. Elon Musk has openly supported ICE operations and labeled protestors as “pure evil,” reflecting his anti-immigration stance.
The letter calls on tech CEOs to end all company contracts with ICE, a potentially costly request since several tech firms currently have contracts with the agency. Palantir is one of ICE’s main tech partners, having secured a $30 million contract to develop an AI-driven surveillance platform named “ImmigrationOS.” Last year, facial recognition company Clearview AI also signed a contract to supply ICE with facial-matching technology. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Oracle provide various IT services and cloud infrastructure to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE as well.
TechCrunch has reached out to these companies for comment.
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