More than 1,400 Salesforce employees signed a letter calling on CEO Marc Benioff to drop potential business with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The letter circulated internally this week as staff discontent grows over the company's engagement with the immigration agency.
Benioff angered staff by joking about ICE agents monitoring international employees during Salesforce's Company Kickoff event in Las Vegas. "A joke about ICE surveilling employees' travel, when there are literally employees afraid to travel for work due to current situation," one employee wrote in internal Slack messages viewed by Business Insider.
The employee letter cites recent press reports describing Salesforce pitches of AI technology to ICE, stating:
"We are deeply troubled by recent press reports describing Salesforce pitches of AI technology to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help the agency hire 10,000 new agents."
According to the New York Times, Salesforce told ICE it could use artificial intelligence capabilities to help the agency "expeditiously" hire 10,000 new agents and vet tip-line reports. Workers demand the company "pause or prohibit infrastructure, AI systems or services that enable ICE operational scale-up."
This marks the second time in months Benioff has faced internal backlash over political comments. Last fall, he told the New York Times he would welcome President Donald Trump sending National Guard troops into San Francisco ahead of Salesforce's Dreamforce conference. He later apologized for those remarks.
Salesforce stock has declined approximately 27% so far in 2026 amid broader technology sector weakness. The company faced investor skepticism over legacy tech and single-digit revenue growth in 2025.
The company faces investor concerns that AI models could undermine growth prospects for traditional software companies like Salesforce.
The employee unrest comes ahead of Salesforce's fourth-quarter earnings report scheduled for February 25. Analysts expect revenue to rise nearly 12% to $11.2 billion with adjusted profit increasing about 10% to $3.05 per share.
Business Insider reported earlier this month that Salesforce removed 1,000 roles across marketing, product management, data analytics, and Agentforce AI teams. The company has not released an official statement regarding these layoffs.
The activism at Salesforce follows similar patterns in the technology sector. Last month, more than 60 CEOs signed a statement calling for de-escalation of immigration enforcement tensions, while 450 employees from major corporations circulated a letter urging executives to pressure the White House to withdraw ICE officers from U.S. cities.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and OpenAI boss Sam Altman recently expressed concerns to staff about increasing violence related to Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. Microsoft faced similar employee protests in 2018 over a $19.4 million contract to develop AI for ICE, and Google employees have also protested ICE contracts.
Salesforce will need to address the concerns of the more than 1,400 employees who signed the protest letter ahead of its February 25 earnings announcement, where analysts project $11.2 billion in revenue.
