Salesforce Employees Demand CEO Cut Ties With ICE, Citing Ethical Breach

A group of Salesforce employees is circulating an internal letter calling on CEO Marc Benioff to publicly denounce U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and stop the agency’s use of the company’s software. The letter, organized during Salesforce’s leadership conference in Las Vegas, cites the recent deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis as a catalyst, describing them as evidence of a system that has abandoned basic humanity.

The push follows remarks Benioff made at the event, where he jokingly told international employees that ICE agents were in the building monitoring them. According to current and former employees who spoke to WIRED, the comment sparked immediate and forceful anger internally, with one source describing colleagues as “furious.”

The letter references reports that Salesforce has pitched its AI technology, including its Agentforce platform, to help ICE rapidly hire 10,000 agents and vet tips. It argues that providing tools to an agency currently detaining 66,000 people—most without criminal records—constitutes a “fundamental betrayal” of ethical technology use.

Employees urge Benioff to leverage his influence as a “corporate statesman,” noting his apparent role last fall in a collective effort by Bay Area tech leaders that led President Trump to call off an ICE deployment in San Francisco. They want him to issue a public condemnation of ICE and establish clear prohibitions on using Salesforce products for what they term “state violence.”

Benioff has long engaged in political issues, but his stance has drawn scrutiny since the start of the current administration. While he has joked about donating a Time magazine cover featuring Trump, he also faced employee criticism last fall for initially supporting the use of the National Guard in San Francisco, a position he later reversed.

The internal campaign emerges amid a wave of executive departures, including the heads of Slack and Tableau, and Ariel Kelman, the chief marketing officer who left for AMD this week. Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment.

Source: Wired