Over 1,300 Google employees and contractors signed a petition this week calling on the company to disclose and cancel any contracts it may have with US immigration authorities.
In the letter, released Friday (Feb 13), the workers say Google has played a “prominent” role in profiting from “violent state repression.” They demand that Google’s leadership publicly call for the US government to make urgent changes to its immigration enforcement tactics.
“We are vehemently opposed to Google’s partnerships with DHS, CBP, and ICE,” the employees wrote. “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.”
“As workers of conscience, we demand that our leadership end our backslide into contracting for governments enacting violence against civilians,” the letter reads.
“Google is now a prominent node in a shameful lineage of private companies profiting from violent state repression. We must use this moment to come together as a Googler community and demand an end to this disgraceful use of our labor,” the staffers noted.
In the petition, the workers cite the ICE killings of Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti, writing that they are “appalled by the violence” and “horrified” by Google’s part in it.
Google sent personal data of a student to ICE
The demand letter arrives a few days after Google sent personal data about a student journalist to the Department of Homeland Security, per The Intercept.
The search engine tech giant provided ICE with the usernames, physical addresses, and an itemized list of services associated with the Google account of Amandla Thomas-Johnson, a British student and journalist who briefly attended a pro-Palestinian protest in 2024 while attending Cornell University in New York.
The move was in response to a subpeona which demanded Thomas-Johnson’s comprehensive Google data, including usernames, physical addresses, IP addresses, phone numbers, and complete financial records.
Per National Today, “this case highlights how government agencies like ICE are using administrative subpoenas to obtain user data from tech companies, even when they lack legal warrants. It reveals the willingness of Big Tech firms to comply with these requests, prioritizing cooperation over user privacy protections.”
Google has yet to respond to the petition.
The Google workers behind the petition join the slate of other employees representing Amazon, Spotify, and Meta who wrote a similar letter demanding ICE “out of our cities.”