Google Employees Protest ICE Contracts & Data Sharing | Tech News 2026

Google Employees Demand Transparency, Halt to ICE Contracts

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – More than 1,300 Google employees and contractors have signed a petition demanding the company disclose and terminate any contracts it holds with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The escalating pressure from within Google reflects a growing wave of employee activism targeting tech companies’ involvement with government agencies responsible for immigration enforcement.

The petition, released Friday, February 13, 2026, alleges Google is profiting from what workers describe as “violent state repression” and calls for a fundamental shift in the company’s ethical considerations. Employees are demanding full transparency regarding the nature and scope of these collaborations, arguing that Google has a responsibility to divest from any projects that contribute to harmful immigration policies.

“We are vehemently opposed to Google’s partnerships with DHS, CBP, and ICE,” the employees wrote in the petition. “We consider it our leadership’s ethical and policy-bound responsibility to disclose all contracts and collaboration with CBP and ICE, and to divest from these partnerships.”

Workers further assert that Google is becoming complicit in a pattern of private companies benefiting from state-sponsored violence, and urge leadership to take a stand against such practices. “As workers of conscience, we demand that our leadership end our backslide into contracting for governments enacting violence against civilians,” the letter reads.

The petition cites the ICE killings of Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti, with workers expressing their dismay at the violence and Google’s alleged role in it. “We are appalled by the violence and horrified by our company’s part in it,” the petition states.

This internal dissent comes as tech companies increasingly face scrutiny over their role in enabling government surveillance and enforcement practices. The petition highlights concerns that Google’s cloud services are being used to facilitate surveillance, raids, and violence against civilians.

The demand letter arrives amid fresh concerns about Google’s data-sharing practices. Just days prior, Google provided ICE with personal data about Amandla Thomas-Johnson, a British student journalist, in response to a subpoena. The data included usernames, physical addresses, and an itemized list of services associated with her Google account. This case, as reported by The Intercept, underscores how government agencies are utilizing administrative subpoenas to obtain user data from tech companies, even without warrants.

According to National Today, the incident with Thomas-Johnson “highlights how government agencies like ICE are using administrative subpoenas to obtain user data from tech companies, even when they lack legal warrants. It reveals the willingness of Big Tech firms to comply with these requests, prioritizing cooperation over user privacy protections.”

The Google workers behind the petition are joining a growing movement of employees at other tech companies – including Amazon, Spotify, and Meta – who have issued a similar call for ICE to be removed from their cities.

The No Tech for Apartheid campaign, which organized the petition, has also been involved in opposing Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract between Google and Amazon and the Israeli military, and government. One Google worker, remaining anonymous for fear of retaliation, stated that Google is now “a prominent node in a shameful lineage of private companies profiting from violent state repression.”

Another Google worker, Alex, who has been with the company for seven years, recalled successfully organizing to stop Google from contracting with the U.S. Military in the past. “I was so proud to be a Googler then––proud to be a part of a company with a moral compass. I’m not proud anymore. My work indirectly powers and accelerates ICE operations, which means I personally stand to benefit from others’ suffering. I refuse to be a quiet participant in that system,” Alex stated.

Google has not yet responded to the petition.