Open letter calls for an end to contracts with U.S. immigration agencies and greater transparency on the use of AI and cloud services
The group No Tech for Apartheid (which organized the letter) has published its official manifesto for the press. Nearly 1,000 Google employees signed an open letter demanding that the company sever contracts with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The document denounces partnerships with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), claiming that Google technologies are being used in acts of “state violence and repression.”
Signatories are calling for immediate transparency, including a question-and-answer session about contracts with DHS and the U.S. Armed Forces, as well as the establishment of ethical limits (“red lines”) for the use of artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
The letter also urges more employees to join the initiative and states that, once sufficient support is gathered, the document will be formally submitted to company leadership.
The authors identify themselves as employees affiliated with the No Tech for Apartheid movement and say they are fed up with decisions that violate Google’s internal values, calling for greater corporate accountability.
Full Text of the Letter Released by Google Employees
We, Google employees, are appalled by the violence perpetrated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
In cities across the country, we have witnessed these agencies carry out paramilitary raids, kidnapping hundreds of civilians and killing protesters and legal observers.
In the past month alone, Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti were killed by agencies of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE, and CBP.
The ICE detention and deportation machine has killed at least 35 people in detention centers since July 2025.
Google is behind this campaign of surveillance, violence, and repression.
Google Cloud is helping to interconnect CBP surveillance systems along the border and across the country, while also powering Palantir’s ImmigrationOS, used by ICE to track immigrants.
Google’s generative artificial intelligence is being used by DHS and CBP for “workforce enablement” and “operational efficiency improvement.”
The Play Store has blocked the most effective ICE tracking apps designed to keep our communities safe.
YouTube has run ICE recruitment and “self-deportation” advertisements.
As workers who provide the foundational labor to build this technology, we are horrified.
On January 11, Google’s Chief Scientist Jeff Dean tweeted: “We all have a collective responsibility to speak up and not stay silent when we see things like the events of the past week.”
We agree. In that spirit, we, Googlers, are speaking out today.
We strongly oppose Google’s partnerships with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
We believe it is our ethical and political responsibility to publicly disclose all contracts and collaborations with CBP and ICE and to disengage from these partnerships.
Our Demands to Google Leadership
To achieve this goal, we demand the following from our executives:
1. Acknowledge the danger and violence that workers face every day.
In cities targeted by these operations, ICE and CBP agents are creating humanitarian emergencies rivaling those of the COVID-19 era. Proportional community responses are needed, including school closures and the establishment of mutual aid networks. Just as Google acted during the pandemic, we demand that leadership acknowledge the danger facing all workers in the U.S. and publicly call for urgent government responses to this crisis.
2. Hold an emergency Q&A session for employees about our contracts with DHS, CBP, and the U.S. Armed Forces.
Leadership responses to employee questions about government and military contracts have been vague and inconsistent, further obscured by AI-generated summaries that omit key points. We demand a live, recorded, U.S.-based all-hands session with relevant leadership present, answering core employee questions without AI summaries or question bundling.
3. Protect all Googlers — from cafeteria staff to data center workers.
The threat ICE poses to Googlers requires leadership to provide material support. We demand appropriate safety measures, including flexible remote work policies and legal and immigration support for all employees. This is especially critical for those with fewer protections, such as TVC workers (Temps, Vendors, and Contractors), on-site staff, and data center employees. ICE agents have already visited our buildings. Leadership must commit to keeping all Googlers safe.
4. Disclose ties and establish clear limits on the use of our products for state violence and repression.
Google employees demand transparency. We require precise clarity on permissible uses of our cloud and AI technologies, as well as full disclosure of how DHS agencies such as CBP and ICE are abusing our products.
Through ICE operations, DHS is violating civil and national laws, as well as civil and human rights.
We must end our complicity in perpetuating these practices. As conscious workers, we demand that leadership halt Google’s return to contracting with governments that commit violence against civilians.
Google has become a prominent link in a shameful lineage of private companies profiting from violent state repression.
We must seize this moment to unite as a community of Googlers and demand an end to this disgraceful use of our labor.
Protection Clause Ensures Anonymity and Safety for Employees
The letter includes a protection clause for signatories, guaranteeing anonymity and confidentiality of personal information in order to prevent potential internal retaliation.
According to the document, employee data will not be publicly disclosed nor shared with Google leadership, remaining accessible only to petition coordinators. The initiative also provides that only the total number of signatures will be released, without any information that could allow individual identification.
The document is released amid growing internal pressure on Big Tech CEOs to take a public stance against ICE. Approximately two weeks earlier, employees from Amazon, Spotify, Meta, and other companies signed a similar letter demanding that the agency “leave our cities.”