Internal Revolt: Google Staff Urge Leadership to Cut ICE Links

Nearly 900 Google employees pressure leadership to cut ICE ties, demanding transparency over cloud services and government contracts amid growing violence.

Feb 7, 2026 - 09:15
Internal Revolt: Google Staff Urge Leadership to Cut ICE Links
Internal Revolt: Google Staff Urge Leadership to Cut ICE Links
Google executives are facing pressure from company staff over the company's ties to the federal government's immigration enforcement operations, which have become increasingly violent and deadly in recent months.
 
In an open letter published Friday, nearly 900 full-time Google employees demanded greater transparency regarding how the company's technology is being used within the U.S. government.
 
Google holds contracts to provide cloud services to federal agencies and also has ties to federal immigration enforcement operations.
 
In a call after the letter was published, a seven-year Google employee said he found it "shocking" that Google maintains its ties with immigration enforcement agencies.
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The Google employees' letter follows a separate letter published two weeks ago, signed by hundreds of employees from several companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, demanding that all tech companies cease work that supports federal immigration enforcement.
 
Last year, the Trump administration accelerated its program of forcibly removing immigrants, deploying armed agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to several cities.
 
Operations of this kind led to two high-profile killings of U.S. citizens who were observing the federal agents.
 
The Google employee making the demands of management identified himself as Alex and said he joined the company seven years ago.
 
"I was proud to work for a company that had a moral compass. I'm not proud anymore," he said.
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In 2018, amid pressure from thousands of employees, Google dropped a contract with the Pentagon called Project Maven, which aimed to develop more efficient drone technology for use by the U.S. military. Alex further stated that he now finds coming to work every day "revolting," knowing that his efforts are supporting the work of federal agents within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE, and CBP, or working on removing apps that officials deem "dangerous."
 
In October, Google said it had removed several apps from its app store that allowed users to report and document sightings of ICE agents. Apple did the same.
 
Another Google employee, who identified herself only as "S," said she joined Google nearly three years ago but said she wouldn't have joined if she had known about its work with federal agencies at the time. "This is not the company I signed up to work for – I would never interview for a military contractor," she said.
 
Both Alex and S said they are now speaking out about Google's work with federal agencies because they objected to its contribution to military actions against people.
 They further stated that Google leadership within the company, including Chief Executive Sundar Pichai, failed to understand the extent of Google's work with the federal government, leading to an open letter demanding greater transparency.
 
Other demands from the employees include that Google remove its technology from any work with DHS, ICE, and CBP, that it protect its employees from immigration enforcement activities, and that the company hold an all-hands meeting to address their concerns.
 
In addition to Google's cloud services for parts of the federal government, the company partnered last year with a major military contractor, Lockheed Martin, to deploy its Gemini AI model in unnamed products and services. Google also has a partnership with Palantir, an American company that provides technology and operating systems used in the operations of the DHS, ICE, and CBP, as well as to all six branches of the U.S. military.
 
Alex, S, and the other signatories of the open letter to Google have had their employment at the company confirmed through their registered work accounts.


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