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Even with employee power at a low ebb, there is a groundswell of pushback against the controversial government agency from tech workers across the USA.
More than 450 tech workers from companies such as Google, Salesforce, Meta, OpenAI, and Amazon have signed a letter urging their CEOs to contact the White House, call for ICE to leave cities, and end all company contracts with the the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) government agency, publicly condemning what they describe as violent tactics by officers.
The campaign among tech workers began after ICE agents shot US citizen Renée Good in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026, and gained momentum over the weekend following the killing of the nurse Alex Pretti on January 24, 2026.
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“For months now, Trump has sent federal agents to our cities to criminalize us, our neighbors, friends, colleagues, and family members,” reads the open letter from IceOut.Tech. “This cannot continue, and we know the tech industry can make a difference.”
When president Trump threatened to send the National Guard to San Francisco in October 2025, tech industry leaders contacted the White House, which eventually resulted in a u-turn by the administration.
So far, many of the tech industry’s influential leaders have largely remained silent on the events in Minneapolis.
Previously, some have even taken steps to align themselves with the president. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were among the tech leaders who attended President Trump’s inauguration.
OpenAI president Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna Brockman, have also emerged as significant donors to political causes and candidates aligned with President Trump.
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The analytics firm Palantir has become one of ICE’s most significant technology partners, with ICE awarding the company a roughly $30 million contract to build its AI‑driven “ImmigrationOS” platform to help prioritize and track enforcement operations and deportations.
Now, employees at Palantir are starting to voice their concerns. Internal Slack messages published by Wired show growing frustrations among staff, with some questioning whether Palantir should continue its relationship with ICE at all.
Taking a stand
Several tech leaders have notably criticized the federal enforcement actions in Minneapolis.
Posting on X, Google DeepMind’s chief scientist Jeff Dean urged “every person regardless of political affiliation” to denounce the escalation of violence.
Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei highlighted the need to “preserve democratic values and rights at home,” especially in light of the “horror we’re seeing in Minnesota.”
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman said the way ICE operates is “terrible for the people,” and Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla described the enforcement as “macho ICE vigilantes running amuck [sic] empowered by a conscious‑less [sic] administration.”
Signal president Meredith Whittaker warned that masked agents are “executing people in the streets and powerful leaders are openly lying to cover for them,” and called on her industry to “draw on the courage of your convictions and stand up.”
“We want to be proud to work in tech. We want to be proud of the companies we work for. We can and must use our leverage to end this violence,” IceOut.Tech stated in the letter.
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