Employees Ask Microsoft CEO to Cut Ties with ICE Following Family Separations at U.S. Borders

Just like many people in and outside of the United States, employees of tech giant Microsoft have expressed their disappointment over the issue of family separation at the U.S. borders and called on CEO Satya Nadella to cancel contracts that contribute to the operations of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

An undated letter signed by “Microsoft workers” addressed Nadella, saying (via CNET), “We believe that Microsoft must take an ethical stand, and put children and families above profits.”

In the past months, families fleeing their troubled countries have been arriving at the U.S. borders to seek asylum. But since there is no policy that supports the way they arrive at the borders and and their attempts to enter the U.S. territory, the Trump administration maintains that this is an act of illegal immigration.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions then ordered for the imposition of “a zero-tolerance policy.” This means that parents who are of legal ages can be immediately arrested and later prosecuted for attempting to cross the U.S. border. So, children of arrested parents are being separated from their families and kept in caged holding facilities.

This crisis led Microsoft employees to demand that the company withdraw from its projects with ICE, particularly citing a $19.4 million worth of contract with the said agency.

At the time when the employees wrote the letter to Nadella, Microsoft president Brad Smith had already stated that the company does not have projects directly related to ICE’s policy that separates children from their parents at the U.S. border.

However, the employees argued, “This does not go far enough. We are providing the technical undergirding in support of an agency that is actively enforcing this inhumane policy.”

“We are part of a growing movement, comprised of many across the industry who recognize the grave responsibility that those creating powerful technology have to ensure what they build is used for good, and not for harm,” Microsoft employees also wrote.

In Nadella’s own statement, the CEO reiterated that Microsoft services have no direct part in the government’s policy separating families at the border. He added that Microsoft is only providing cloud management services to the ICE for “supporting legacy mail, calendar, messaging and document management workloads.”