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.
The Department of Homeland Security hands out some of its most lucrative contracts for software and tech gear to Silicon Valley vendors. That's created tension at multiple companies as workers question whether the tools they build are being used for surveillance or violence. A small but vocal share of employees at Google, Amazon, and Palantir have raised concerns for years about their employers' government work.
Palantir employees recently pressed executives internally about the company's ICE contracts, according to Wired. And over 1,000 people across the tech industry signed a letter last month urging businesses to drop the agency entirely.
The companies have mostly defended their federal work or pushed back on claims they're enabling concerning practices. Some contracts run through intermediaries, making it hard for workers to track which tools an agency is actually using and for what purposes. That opacity is part of what's driving the latest Google petition.
No Tech for Apartheid, the worker group behind the campaign, has been organizing inside Google and Amazon for years against what they call tech militarism - the integration of corporate cloud services, platforms, and AI into military and surveillance systems. The group previously led protests against Google's Project Nimbus contract with Israel.
The new petition makes three specific demands. First, it asks Google leadership to publicly call for urgent changes to US immigration enforcement tactics. Second, it wants the company to hold internal discussions with workers about the principles that guide decisions to sell technology to government authorities. Third, it demands additional safety measures for Google's own workforce, noting that immigration agents recently targeted an area near a Meta data center under construction.
The petition represents a test of how much leverage workers have as tech companies navigate politically sensitive government contracts. Google has faced employee activism on multiple fronts in recent years, from AI ethics to military projects to workplace culture. Some protests led to policy changes, others fizzled without visible impact.
What makes this moment different is the public attention on immigration enforcement tactics. The Minneapolis shootings and resulting protests put pressure on companies that might otherwise deflect internal criticism. Workers are betting that pressure creates an opening to force more transparency about what technology Google is providing to DHS agencies.
The petition also reflects broader questions about tech's role in government operations. As AI and cloud computing become central to federal agencies, companies face tough choices about which contracts to pursue and what guardrails to impose. Workers increasingly want a say in those decisions, arguing they have a moral stake in how their work gets used.
For now, Google hasn't indicated whether it will respond to the petition's demands. The company has previously emphasized its commitment to responsible AI principles and said it carefully evaluates government contracts. But workers are pushing for more than general assurances - they want specific disclosure about ICE and CBP relationships and a commitment to end them.
The petition puts Google in a familiar but uncomfortable position - balancing employee activism against lucrative government contracts at a moment when immigration enforcement is under intense scrutiny. With 800+ workers signing on and similar protests emerging at other tech giants, the pressure isn't going away. Whether Google chooses transparency or silence will signal how seriously it takes worker concerns about the real-world impact of its technology. What happens next could set a precedent for how Silicon Valley navigates the ethics of government work in an era when every contract is subject to internal revolt.
