Over 1,400 Salesforce staff have signed a petition calling on Chief Executive Marc Benioff to abandon all proposed deals with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. Two sources close to the campaign confirmed this to CNBC.
“We are deeply troubled by recent press reports describing Salesforce pitches of AI technology to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help the agency ‘expeditiously’ hire 10,000 new agents and vet tip-line reports,” the petition states.
It demands Benioff halt ongoing ICE bids and publicly oppose masked agents on U.S. streets.
The move follows unease in tech circles after ICE officers shot dead U.S. citizens Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota last January.
Benioff’s recent jest about ICE at a Las Vegas staff event drew internal Slack backlash, sources said.
Workers want transparency on ICE services and a block on tools boosting agency expansion. “We are concerned that Salesforce products and services may be enabling ICE to expand recruitment, onboarding and operational capacity,” a supporting note warns, citing an October New York Times report on Salesforce’s hiring pitch to ICE.
“Employees face real personal and professional risk when Salesforce is perceived as enabling ICE, including reputational harm, social targeting or being misidentified as complicit in activities they oppose,” it adds.
Organisers plan to send it to Benioff by Friday.
Salesforce faces investor worries over AI curbing software growth, with shares down nearly 27 per cent this year. The firm still eyes 9-10 per cent revenue growth amid U.S. government ties.
The petition praises Benioff’s opposition to National Guard deployment in San Francisco, his home base. Some 900 Google staff recently made similar divestment pleas, while Apple CEO Tim Cook criticised ICE protest tactics.
“Marc, you have often said that ‘business is the greatest platform for change,’” it concludes. “Today, that platform must be used to defend our neighbors’ constitutional rights and the safety of our communities.”
Wired reported the letter Tuesday but Salesforce gave no immediate reply.