Salesforce staff name on CEO Benioff to cancel ICE ‘alternatives’ – Worldwide Dispatch

Over 1,400 Salesforce staff have signed a letter calling on CEO Marc Benioff to drop potential enterprise with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement company, two folks acquainted with the hassle advised CNBC.

“We’re deeply troubled by latest press experiences describing Salesforce pitches of AI know-how to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to assist the company ‘expeditiously’ rent 10,000 new brokers and vet tip-line experiences,” the letter reads.

The letter calls on Benioff to cancel “all energetic pitches or ‘alternatives’ for ICE enforcement and hiring” and challenge a public assertion demanding the removing of masked brokers in U.S. cities.

The Salesforce worker letter is the newest instance of tech staff elevating issues concerning the U.S. company’s use of their firms’ companies after ICE brokers killed U.S. residents Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota in January.

Earlier on Tuesday, Benioff joked about ICE being current at an worker gathering in Las Vegas, 404 Media reported. The incident led staff to criticize the feedback in an inside Slack discussion board, the 2 folks advised CNBC.

Letter signatories are asking Salesforce to inform staff what sorts of companies it’s offering to ICE and “pause or prohibit infrastructure, AI programs or companies that allow ICE operational scale-up.”

“We’re involved that Salesforce services and products could also be enabling ICE to increase recruitment, onboarding and operational capability,” reads a supplementary doc to the letter, which CNBC considered. The doc cited an October New York Occasions report saying that Salesforce described its software program as an “perfect platform” for ICE agent recruitment in a response to a request for info.

The letter from staff comes at a tough time for the corporate. Traders have been involved about the potential of AI fashions hurting the expansion prospects of software program firms, together with Salesforce. Its inventory is down about 27% thus far in 2026. In December, the corporate touted its work with the U.S. authorities and referred to as for progress between 9% and 10% within the present fiscal yr, which might be up barely.

Wired reported concerning the letter earlier Tuesday. Salesforce didn’t instantly present remark.

The letter from Salesforce staff comes after 900 Google staff requested their firm to divest itself from ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Safety as of final week. Enterprise leaders together with Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner have additionally decried the habits of ICE brokers in clashes with protesters.

“Workers face actual private {and professional} threat when Salesforce is perceived as enabling ICE, together with reputational hurt, social concentrating on or being misidentified as complicit in actions they oppose,” the complement reads. “On the identical time, staff can’t make knowledgeable selections about their work when the scope, governance and bounds of Salesforce’s relationship with ICE are opaque.”

Organizers plan to ship the letter to Benioff by Friday, in keeping with the doc.

The letter credit Benioff for saying in October that he didn’t consider the Nationwide Guard wanted to deploy to San Francisco, the place Salesforce has its headquarters and holds its annual Dreamforce convention. One week earlier, The New York Occasions reported that Benioff supported President Donald Trump’s concept of bringing troops to town.

In Could, the U.S. Normal Providers Administration stated Salesforce supplied reductions on Slack, its crew communication software program, to a slew of presidency companies. Adobe, Microsoft and ServiceNow additionally prolonged worth cuts to be used of their software program throughout the U.S. authorities.

In October, Benioff held a dialog with Trump’s synthetic intelligence and cryptocurrency czar, David Sacks, and in November, the Salesforce CEO attended a dinner with the president on the White Home alongside different know-how executives. He posted a photograph of himself with Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi on X.

“Marc, you might have usually stated that ‘enterprise is the best platform for change,'” the letter reads. “At this time, that platform have to be used to defend our neighbors’ constitutional rights and the protection of our communities.”