Tech workers call on CEOs to speak out against ICE after Alex Pretti’s murder

More than 450 technology professionals from companies such as Google, Meta, OpenAI, Amazon, and Salesforce have signed on letter urging their CEOs to call the White House and request that United States Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) leave US cities.

“For months now, Trump has sent federal agencies into our cities to destroy us, our neighbors, our friends, our friends, and our family,” said an open letter from IceOut.Tech. “From Minneapolis to Los Angeles to Chicago, we’ve seen armed and masked criminals bring reckless violence, theft, vandalism and brutality to the table.”

Minneapolis has been the starting point for the state’s largest immigration operation, using the most powerful methods that many have recognized. such as military service. The operation has been marked by clashes between the government and communities opposed to the attacks, with authorities using indiscriminate crowd control measures, including tear gas, tear gas, rubber bullets, and sound missiles.

“This cannot continue, and we know that the tech industry can change,” the letter from tech workers continues. “When Trump threatened to send in the National Guard to San Francisco in October, tech industry leaders called the White House. It helped: Trump backtracked.”

A campaign among technical workers began later ICE agents shot and killed US citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis three weeks ago, and escalated over the weekend after Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Prettia 37-year-old ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital.

The authors of the letter did not reveal their names, and many who signed the letter remained anonymous for fear of retribution. TechCrunch has reached out for more information.

Several tech leaders have already spoken out against the state’s actions in Minneapolis. LinkedIn co-founded Reid Hoffman said the way ICE operates “is bad for people,” and Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla. called current forcing “ICE’s surveillance system is running with the help of unsuspecting regulators.” Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean appealed to “everyone regardless of political affiliation” protesting the increase in violence. OpenAI’s head of global business, James Dyett, criticized the company’s silence, send on X that “there’s more anger from technology leaders over the tax system than ICE undercover agents persecuting people.”

Signal President Meredith Whittaker He lamented that people wearing trash are “killing people in the streets and powerful leaders are lying openly to cover them up.”

However, the most powerful figures among the leaders of technology have not only remained silent against the actions of the Trump administration, but have tried to please the president. Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim CookGoogle CEO Sundar Picchu and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg both attended President Trump’s inauguration and donated money to the inauguration either personally or through their organizations. No one has spoken publicly about the number of ICE raids.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman and his wife Anna are also major donors reasons and candidates to associate with President Trump and stopped talking. In line with his anti-immigrant views, Elon Musk has been supporting ICE operations, calling out critics. “real evil.”

The letter also calls on tech CEOs to cancel all company contracts with ICE – which could be costly, as several technology companies have contracts with ICE. Palantir is one of ICE’s largest technology partners. Last year the company was awarded $30 million contract to create a new controlled AI management platform it’s called “ImmigrationOS.” Last year, a facial recognition company Clearview AI signed a contract giving ICE the ability to match faces. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Oracle It also provides cloud infrastructure to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, as well as IT services.

TechCrunch has reached out to the company for comment.

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