Tech Workers Condemn ICE as CEOs Stay Silent
▼ Summary
– Since Trump’s return, major tech leaders have largely cooperated with the administration, maintaining business as usual despite its controversial policies.
– The fatal shooting of a US citizen by ICE in Minneapolis has prompted some tech workers and researchers to publicly criticize the administration’s tactics.
– Over 150 tech workers have signed a petition urging their CEOs to demand ICE leave US cities and condemn the agency’s recent violence.
– Prominent figures, including engineers and scientists from companies like Anthropic and Google, have expressed moral outrage, comparing the situation to historical fascism.
– Some high-profile tech individuals, like Google’s Jeff Dean and Box’s Aaron Levie, have used social media to question the legality and justification of the ICE agent’s actions.
In the year since the last presidential inauguration, the technology industry’s most influential leaders have largely maintained a cooperative relationship with the new administration. This has involved high-profile meetings, public endorsements of policy directions, and continued efforts to secure favorable business conditions. This alignment has persisted despite significant shifts in regulatory and constitutional approaches affecting everything from international trade to skilled immigration. For many rank-and-file employees, however, a recent violent incident has become a breaking point, sparking internal dissent where executive leadership remains quiet.
The fatal shooting of an unarmed U.S. citizen, Renee Nicole Good, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis has ignited a wave of condemnation from within major tech firms. While the sector’s wealthiest CEOs have not publicly addressed the event, numerous researchers, engineers, and other employees are choosing to speak out. Over 150 tech workers have signed a petition urging their chief executives to contact the White House, demand ICE withdraw from American cities, and publicly denounce the agency’s recent actions.
Anne Diemer, a human resources consultant and former Stripe employee who organized the effort, noted that signatories include staff from Meta, Google, Amazon, OpenAI, TikTok, Spotify, Salesforce, LinkedIn, and Rippling. The group intends to publish the list upon reaching 200 names. “I think so many tech folks have felt like they can’t speak up,” Diemer explained. Her goal is for corporate leaders to directly challenge the country’s political leadership, though she also sees value in the petition helping individuals find solidarity and resist what she describes as fascism.
The response has been particularly vocal on social media platforms. Nikhil Thorat, an engineer at Anthropic, published a lengthy statement calling the killing a profound moral failure, suggesting the moral foundation of society is infected and drawing a stark historical parallel to periods of widespread public silence. His post received public support from other tech figures, including Jonathan Frankle, the chief AI scientist at Databricks, and Shrisha Radhakrishna, a top executive at Opendoor, who called the administration’s actions terrifying and dehumanizing.
Internal criticism also emerged from highly respected veterans within established companies. Jeff Dean, a pioneering Google employee who now serves as chief scientist for Google DeepMind and Google Research, used his substantial platform to share critiques of the administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. He explicitly condemned the recent events as illegal and unconstitutional, urging people not to become numb to such actions, and highlighted a separate video showing the violent arrest of a teenager in Minnesota.
The public debate extended to the factual circumstances of the shooting. After the Vice President claimed Good attempted to run over the ICE agent, Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, questioned the official narrative. He pointedly asked why the agent fired additional shots after seemingly being out of danger and why he positioned himself in front of the vehicle instead of moving away. Levie supported his critique with a screenshot of official Justice Department guidelines on law enforcement interactions with moving vehicles, introducing a factual counterpoint to the political defense. This incident has clearly driven a wedge between the political accommodations of tech executives and the growing ethical concerns of their employees.
(Source: Wired)
