The Google LLC logo seen at Google Store Chelsea on November 17, 2021 in Manhattan, New York.
Andrew Kelly Reuter
over 900 google Workers signed an open letter condemning recent actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), calling on tech giants to disclose their dealings with and divest from both agencies.
The letter cited the recent ICE killings of Keith Porter, Renee Goode and Alex Preti, saying its employees were “appalled by the violence” and “horrified” by Google’s involvement in it.
“Google is facilitating this campaign of surveillance, violence, and oppression,” the letter says.
Additionally, it says Google Cloud is helping CBP with monitoring and powering. Palantir’s ImmigrationOS system. Used by ICE. The letter states that Google’s generative artificial intelligence is used by CBP and that the Google Play Store blocks ICE tracking apps.
The letter also cited a social media post from early January by Jeff Dean, Google’s chief scientist, in which he said, “We all have a collective responsibility to not be silent and speak up when we see things like what happened last week.”
“We firmly oppose Google’s partnership with DHS, CBP, and ICE,” the employees wrote. “We believe it is the ethical and policy responsibility of our leadership to disclose all contracts and collaborations with CBP and ICE and to dissociate from these partnerships.”
The letter asks Google to recognize the risks workers face from ICE, host an emergency internal Q&A about its DHS and military contracts, put in place safeguards to protect workers, including flexible work-from-home policies and immigration assistance, and clarify its relationships with government agencies so all parties can decide where the company draws the line.
“As workers of conscience, we call on our leaders to stop defying government contracts that enact violence against civilians,” the letter reads. “Google is now a prominent nexus in a shameful lineage of private companies profiting from violent state repression. We must use this moment to come together as a community of Googlers and demand an end to this shameful use of our workforce.”
Google did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The letter comes as employees ramp up pressure on tech company CEOs to speak out against ICE. Just two weeks ago, a representative employee Amazon, spotify, Meta And many more wrote similar letters demanding that ICE be removed “from our cities.”
