Lately, all eyes have turned to the city of Minneapolis. This comes on the heels of two tragic accidents involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. On July 31 ICE agents shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Good just blocks from her home. Just a few days later, they shot and killed 37-year-old Minneapolis ICU nurse, Alex Pretti, of the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital. These events have catalyzed widespread outrage among tech workers and industry leaders alike, leading a movement to hold these industries accountable for their complicity in ICE’s operations.
The protest turned up the volume almost immediately after Good’s death. More than 450 engineers and data scientists from Google, Meta, OpenAI, Amazon, and Salesforce signed an open letter addressed to their respective CEOs, calling on them to publicly pressure the White House and require ICE to withdraw from American cities. The campaign escalated in the days after Pretti’s death. The awful death of Ms. Maria got a lot more people and media attention focused on ICE’s enforcement overreach in cities.
The industry’s complete lack of response to what’s happening in ICE operations has been frustrating to hear, said James Dyett, OpenAI’s head of global business. He called on tech execs to lean in, particularly during crises. He decried the “reckless violence” associated with these federal operations as a pressing concern that must be resolved.
Meredith Whittaker, President of Signal, agreed, criticizing ICE agents’ tactics.
“Executing people in the streets and powerful leaders are openly lying to cover for them. To everyone in my industry who’s ever claimed to value freedom — draw on the courage of your convictions and stand up.” – Meredith Whittaker
Minneapolis has become the epicenter of a real-time, Trump-headed, federal immigration debacle. Some have gone as far as to call it a military occupation. Critics argue that ICE’s tactics in the city are not only extreme but contribute to an environment filled with “reckless violence, kidnapping, terror and cruelty with no end in sight.” These assertions ring hollow to the many residents whose personal safety is endangered during such increased enforcement campaigns.
“Macho ICE vigilantes running amok empowered by a conscious-less administration.” – Vinod Khosla
TechCrunch reporter Rebecca Bellan, who specializes in the intersections of business, policy, and emerging trends in artificial intelligence. She examines the impact of industry partnerships with ICE on communities. She pointed out everyone in the industry is facing the squeeze. They are now more accountable than ever to refuse engagement with corporate practices that erode ethical integrity and human rights.
IceOut’s open letter denounces the arrival of masked, armed agents. Finally, it shines a light on how these figures create an atmosphere of violence and terror within communities. Thousands of citizens in a very bipartisan way have fought to make this a reality. They call on tech companies to acknowledge their role in advancing the agencies that enact violent policies.
The public outcry makes us more powerful every day. Now, tech workers are more dogged than ever in pushing their companies to stop contributing to federal immigration enforcement. Those tragic losses—Renee Good and Alex Pretti—have energized a powerful movement. Through seamless coordination with civil and immigrants’ rights and other advocates, this movement seeks to center their collective tragedies, to address the systemic issues in immigration enforcement practices across the United States.
As public outcry continues to grow, tech workers remain determined to hold their companies accountable for their complicity in federal immigration enforcement. The tragic losses of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have galvanized a movement that seeks not only to address these individual tragedies but also to confront broader systemic issues within immigration enforcement practices across the United States.
