What CEOs and chief technology officers have to say about ICE’s actions in Minnesota

The Trump administration’s approach to immigration has reached a point of violence that the tech industry can’t ignore. In 2026 to the present, federal immigration agents have killed at least eight peopleincluding at least two US citizens in Minneapolis – Renee Good and Alex Pretti. As immigration enforcement escalates – even arresting students seeking legal protection – tech workers have asked their leaders to speak out.

Technology companies have always been involved in politics. Companies like Palantir, Clearview AI, Flock, and Paragon are written by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is contributing to the destruction of this organization. But since President Trump took office last year, his corporate connections have grown. Elon Musk ran the government agency for several months, and Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Sacks is leading the president’s technology advisory group. The executives behind some of the country’s biggest companies — such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Google’s Sundar Pichai — had big seats at Trump’s inauguration and have remained loyal to him.

“We know our corporate leaders have power: in October, they persuaded Trump to stop ICE operations in San Francisco,” ICEout.techa group of technical workers who oppose ICE, wrote in a statement on January 24, the day of the ICU nurse. Alex Prettydeath. “Senior technology officials are in the White House tonight,” the statement added, referring to the review of Melania Trump’s documents. CookingAndy Jassy of Amazon, and Eric Yuan of Zoom were in attendance. “Now they need to step forward, and join us in demanding ICE in all our cities.”

Some of the biggest tech players have spoken out, to mixed receptions from their employees and the industry. Below, we’ve compiled a list of what technology leaders have to say.

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, a major Democratic donor, published editor in the San Francisco Standard on January 29, calling on Silicon Valley to stop trying to be net neutral because of the Minnesota massacre.

“We in Silicon Valley cannot bow to Trump,” Hoffman wrote. “We cannot sit back and hope this problem will go away. We know now that hope without action is not an option – and I call on Trump to trample on everything he can see, including our business and security.”

He said he was encouraged to see so many tech leaders speak, saying: “It’s a great start to something America needs more of right now.”

“Anyone you’ve supported in the past – or even if (like many of my friends in Silicon Valley) you’re not politically active – you didn’t want to. this,” he wrote.

Sam Altman, CEO at OpenAI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was open critics Trump’s policies during his first term, but he changed his behavior in the new administration when his company signed a contract to build AI infrastructure for the US government, including an investment of $ 500 billion. The Stargate Project.

In the days following Pretti’s death, Altman spoke to OpenAI employees in an internal Slack message, which was written by The New York Times.

“What’s going on with ICE is going too far. There’s a big difference between chasing violent criminals and what’s going on now, and we need to draw a clear distinction,” he said. “President Trump is a very strong leader, and I believe he will rise to the occasion and unite the country.”

Altman added, “We didn’t wake up when this was popular, we didn’t start talking about male power when it was popular, and we don’t talk much about security or politics or anything else.

Dario Amodei, CEO at Anthropic

In an interview with NBC, anchor Tom Llamas asked Dario Amodei about his views on security in relation to the current situation. Nangula also said that Anthropic has a contract with the US Department of Defense, and that it has partnered with Palantir – which provided technology to ICE – on the agency’s projects.

First, Amodei confirmed that Anthropic does not have contracts with ICE, despite its relationship with the Department of Defense, and he emphasized his concern “the need to protect democracy from autocracies” such as China and Russia.

“I’m a big believer in prudence, security, giving democratic tools to protect these countries,” Amodei said, adding that these values ​​continue to permeate American politics.

“We have to be very careful in making sure that democracy is worth protecting. We have to protect our democratic values ​​at home,” he said. “I believe some of the things we’ve seen in the last few days are troubling.”

He also reported on the ICE raid in Minneapolis in a post on X, where he reported on “the horrors we’re seeing in Minnesota.”

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

The CEO of Apple spoke to the employees memo inside on January 27:

“This is the fall season,” Cook said. He later added, “I had a good conversation with the president this week where I shared my thoughts, and I appreciate his willingness to take action on issues that are important to all of us.”

Meredith Whittaker, President of Signal

As the technology staff behind ICEout.tech, Signal President Meredith Whittaker has been vocal about the role technology leaders have in social justice.

“I want every professional who has ever had a love of freedom, or a love of privacy, or a commitment to freedom, to join me in this irrefutable criticism,” Whittaker. he wrote on X.

In another story, he said: “Secrets in the United States government are killing people in the streets and powerful leaders are lying openly to cover them up.” To anyone in my company who has ever said that they value freedom, try to stand up for what you believe in and fight back.

As an end-to-end messaging app, Signal is often used by activists to organize public events.

Tony Stubblebine, CEO at Medium

The director of the online publishing platform Medium, Tony Stubblebine posted photos on Threads of a message shared with employees how he explained his reasons for allowing employees to participate in a government strike if he chooses, although he made it clear that he is “not in the business of controlling people politically.”

“I started the week in my head and heart about what I saw in Minneapolis and struggling with the idea that these two murders were the culmination of mistakes,” Stubblebine wrote.

In the memo, he wrote about the challenges of managing his role as chief technology officer during this time, saying “it’s difficult to navigate both travel and finances.” He added that he thought about the company’s “responsibility to make (its) clear, especially as many other tech companies are donating to the Trump campaign and supporting government initiatives.”

Stubblebine also said that Medium’s approach to its work as a publisher reflects the company’s core beliefs — “for example, that we don’t tolerate things like hate speech or racist arguments on Medium.”

Jeff Dean, principal scientist at Google DeepMind

Jeff Dean talked about how he was killed in Minnesota.

“This is so embarrassing,” Dean he wrote on X, in response to a video of federal agents shooting Alex Pretti. “Federal agents are overreaching for no reason, and then killing a defenseless citizen whose crime appears to be to use their cell phone camera. Every person regardless of political affiliation should oppose this.”

James Dyett, head of global business for OpenAI

James Dyett wrote on X about what he sees as fraud in the tech industry.

“There’s more anger from technology leaders over the tax system than ICE undercover agents who are torturing people and killing civilians on the streets,” Dyett said. he said. “They tell you what you need to know about the benefits of our industry.”

Keith Rabois, Ethan Choi, and Vinod Khosla, partners at Khosla Ventures

Although Khosla Ventures partner Keith Rabois has publicly expressed support for ICE and the Trump administration’s actions, others at the firm have publicly challenged these views.

Rabois spoke angrily on X after border agents killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, prompting the founder answer that if he was the founder of Khosla Ventures, he would return the money, calling Rabois “disgraceful.”

Ethan Choi, a partner at Khosla Ventures, he answered to the post office to explain that not everyone in the company agrees with Rabois’s views. “I want to make it clear that Keith does not represent the opinion of anyone here at (Khosla Ventures), not mine,” Choi said. he wroteI added: “What happened in Minnesota is very wrong.

Vinod Khosla, the company’s founder, echoed Choi’s message and called the feds “the eyes of ICE vigilantes being run with the help of unscrupulous administrators.”

“The film was depressing to watch and told a story without facts or fiction by the government which is unthinkable in civilized society,” Khosla. he wrote. “ICE agents have to have ice running through their veins to treat other people like this. There is politics but humanity has to go beyond that.”

Khosla also wrote on X that he agrees with Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, that top tech executives should speak out against the Trump administration.