Over 800 Google employees and contractors signed a petition this week demanding the company disclose and terminate any contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The campaign, organized by worker group No Tech for Apartheid, marks one of the largest anti-ICE protests at a single tech company since federal agents fatally shot two US citizens in Minneapolis last month, reigniting debate over Silicon Valley's role in government surveillance and enforcement operations.
Google is facing renewed internal pressure over its ties to federal immigration authorities. More than 800 employees and contractors signed a petition this week calling on leadership to come clean about any contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and cut ties with agencies like ICE and CBP.
"We consider it our leadership's ethical and policy-bound responsibility to disclose all contracts and collaboration with CBP and ICE, and to divest from these partnerships," the petition states, according to Wired's reporting. Google didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
The campaign comes at a charged moment for tech companies doing business with immigration authorities. Federal agents shot and killed two US citizens during confrontations with protesters in Minneapolis last month, incidents captured on video that went viral and became flashpoints for criticism of the Trump administration's mass deportation operations. The White House and Congress are now negotiating changes to ICE's tactics in response to the uproar.
But for Google workers, the concerns aren't new. Nearly 1,500 employees signed a similar petition back in 2019 demanding the company suspend work with CBP over what they called human rights abuses. More recently, staff at Google's AI unit asked executives to explain how they'd prevent ICE from raiding their offices. No answers were provided.
