Employees at Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) are reportedly urging CEO Marc Benioff to publicly condemn the recent actions of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while also calling for the prohibition of Salesforce software by immigration agents and support for federal legislation to reform the agency.

Backlash After Benioff’s ICE Joke

An internal letter addressed to Benioff is being circulated among Salesforce employees, Wired reported on Tuesday. During Salesforce's annual leadership kickoff, a group of employees organized a letter criticizing the company's reported pitch of AI tools to ICE to help speed up the hiring of 10,000 agents and review tip-line reports. The employees contend that such involvement conflicts with Salesforce's stated commitment to the ethical use of technology.

The letter also highlights Benioff’s "unique weight in Washington," and urges him to use it to issue a public statement condemning ICE’s conduct and to establish “red lines” prohibiting the use of Salesforce’s cloud and AI products for state violence.

The development followed an earlier report by 404 Media that the CEO faced backlash after joking during a Las Vegas all-hands meeting that ICE ...