Hundreds of US technology workers ask their bosses to ‘call the White House’ because of ICE

More than 220 people have signed the petition as of January 20, of which 140 people have made their names and places of work public. AnnE Diemer, a human resources consultant in San Francisco who drafted the letter, said there were six Google employees, three Amazon employees and two each from Meta, TikTok and Salesforce. Some participants are senior leaders at companies.

“Today, we call on our CEOs to pick up the phone again: 1. Call the White House and demand that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents leave our cities. 2. Cancel all corporate contracts with ICE. 3. Speak out publicly against ICE violence,” the petition reads.

Diemer, who used to work at the payment company Stripe, said “the goal of the petition is to deny the long-standing notion that the tech industry is on Mr. Trump’s side on the issue of arresting immigrants and that many companies have signed contracts with ICE.”

Many technology corporations have donated millions of dollars to US President Donald Trump’s election campaign as well as construction projects at the White House.

Mr. Trump said in November 2025 that friends, including technology executives like Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, convinced him to delay ICE’s raid in San Francisco.

Leaders of technology companies have not spoken out after the petition was announced. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson rejected the letter.

“ICE officers courageously enforce the law and protect American communities with the utmost professionalism. Anyone who criticizes law enforcement officers instead of criminals is simply doing the will of illegal immigrant criminals,” Ms. Jackson said.

Despite their anger, many technology workers today still choose to stay silent because they fear a wave of personnel cuts in the industry.

“Many colleagues told me privately that they were very dissatisfied, but they were afraid of losing their jobs if they spoke out publicly,” said Pete Warden, a former Apple and Google employee who now leads startup Moonshine AI, who signed the petition.