Employees of Microsoft’s GitHub demand company cancel its contract with ICE

GitHub became the latest technology company to come under fire for its supporting role in the Trump administration’s immigration clampdown Wednesday, with employees of the Microsoft-owned company demanding Chief Executive Nat Friedman cancel a $200,000 contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In an open letter on Twitter, employees of the cloud-based service for managing software code said continuing to work with ICE would make the company “complicit in widespread human rights abuses.” The letter was published a day after GitHub announced a $500,000 donation to nonprofits “working to support immigrant communities targeted by the current administration,” according to an all-staff memo Friedman sent. Employees at Microsoft, GitHub’s parent company, began protesting the software maker’s $19.4 million contract with ICE in June 2018, accusing executives of “abdicating” ethical responsibility. More recently, Whole Foods employees protested Amazon’s work with Palantir, a data-analytics company whose software has been used in ICE raids, and the company’s sale of facial recognition technology to law enforcement.