A cabal of university professors have called on Microsoft to cut off U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from their information technology, reports Campus Reform.
All across the country, professors have signed onto a petition demanding that Microsoft end its ongoing partnership with the law enforcement agency. “An Open Letter to Microsoft: Drop your $19.4 million ICE tech contract,” reads the petition’s title, which came in response to an internal Microsoft employee petition that denounced the tech company’s partnership with ICE.
“As concerned scientists, scholars, and researchers, we condemn the use of technology for inhumane surveillance, detention, deportation, and border militarization,” the letter begins. “We call on Microsoft, and all tech firms with ICE contracts, to drop those contracts immediately. Anything short of cancellation constitutes compliance with inhumane, abusive practices.”
The professors even go on to hint at a potential boycott of Microsoft should they continue providing ICE with technology.
“Furthermore, we pledge to never work on technologies that are used for the detention and deportation system,” the letter continues. “We urge other researchers and scientists to publicly state that they too will never work on technologies used to support this system; and we promise to support the growing movement for ethical technology in our research, in our classrooms, and in the public sphere.”
These are the same people who say that bakers should be forced to make cakes for weddings they morally disagree with. Now, they are calling on one of the largest tech companies in the world to cut a government agency off solely because of political differences.
More than 500 professors have signed the petition, including ones from such prestigious institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Princeton University, and New York University.
In response to the protests, Microsoft has stated their technology has nothing to do with President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy and will continue working with ICE.
“Microsoft is not working with the U.S. government on any projects related to separating children from their families at the border,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote in a June memo. “Our current cloud engagement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is supporting legacy mail, calendar, messaging, and document management workloads.”
“Any engagement with any government has been and will be guided by our ethics and principles,” Nadella continued. “We will continue to have this dialogue both within our company and with our stakeholders outside.”
“We will always stand for immigration policies that preserve every person’s dignity and human rights,” Nadella added. “That means standing with every immigrant who works at Microsoft and standing for change in the inhumane treatment of children at the U.S. border today.”