No Tech for ICE is an activist group that opposes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a government agency that enforces immigration laws, including deporting illegal immigrants. It appears to be a campaign of Mijente, a left-of-center advocacy group. 1
Background
No Tech for ICE appears to be affiliated with Mijente, as its contact form tells supporters to use “[email protected]” as an alternative email. 2 Mijente is listed instead of No Tech for ICE on many of No Tech for ICE’s campaigns and research materials. 3 4 It also all but refers to No Tech for ICE as a campaign of Mijente on its “About” page. 1
Activities
As of 2024, No Tech for ICE was advertising multiple action campaigns with petitions, some of which were outdated: one to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids during the COVID-19 pandemic, one calling on Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis to end their technology services contracts with ICE, and another to “disrupt tech’s talent pipeline” by petitioning on campuses. It was also advertising its reports on tech company Palantir’s role helping former President Donald Trump and on the funding behind ICE. 5
Its petition against Reuters and LexisNexis was started by Mijente, Law Students Against ICE, Immigrant Defense Project (IDP), and Researchers Against Surveillance. It purports to be led by legal academics, librarians, attorneys, and students who are “concerned” about alleged “human rights abuses” conducted by ICE with the aid of technological services provided by Thomson Reuters (parent company to Westlaw) and RELX plc (parent company to LexisNexis). It claims the companies “play key roles in fueling the surveillance, imprisonment, and deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year” and adds that ICE is making use of data from their “legal search engines to track and arrest immigrants on a massive scale.” 4
Its protest against Palantir, a technology company founded by Peter Thiel, targets two large contracts Palantir has with ICE, claiming that the partnership helps ICE deport illegal immigrants. It calls on college students to refuse employment from the company, and has a petition to pressure schools into supporting the initiative themselves by refusing collaboration. 6 Its report on Palantir’s role in aiding the Trump administration, as well as the roles played by Amazon, Salesforce, Microsoft, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard, claims the tech companies accepted numerous federal contracts when President Trump was in office to provide “military-grade digital tools” and “private data” to the “deportation machine.” 7
Its report “Who’s Behind ICE? The Tech and Data Companies Fueling Deportations” details how 10 percent of the budget of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is dedicated to data management, with service fees being paid to Amazon Web Services and Palantir. It criticizes the US government for creating a “‘revolving door’ to develop and entrench Silicon Valley’s role in fueling the incarceration and deportation regime.” It calls on supporters and other activist groups to help break up the relationship between technology companies and ICE, saying the effort is a “key component of the movement to push back against the Trump-Sessions agenda, to #AbolishICE, and to defend our families and communities.” 3
No Tech for ICE syndicates news articles from various sources such as The Hill, The Guardian, and The Intercept on big tech’s role in facilitating deportations. 5
References
- “About.” No Tech for ICE. Accessed July 5, 2024. https://notechforice.com/about/.
- “Contact.” No Tech for ICE. Accessed July 5, 2024. https://notechforice.com/contact/.
- “Who’s Behind ICE? The Tech and Data Companies Fueling Deportations.” Mijente. Accessed July 5, 2024. https://mijente.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WHO%E2%80%99S-BEHIND-ICE_-The-Tech-and-Data-Companies-Fueling-Deportations_v3-.pdf.
- “Law Letter.” No Tech for ICE. Accessed July 5, 2024. https://notechforice.com/lawletter/.
- “#NoTechForICE.” No Tech for ICE. Accessed July 5, 2024. https://notechforice.com/.
- “Students Pledge #NoTechForICE.” Mijente. Accessed July 5, 2024. https://action.mijente.net/efforts/students-pledge-notechforice/lookup/new.
- “War on Immigrants: Powered by Palantir.” No Tech for ICE. Accessed July 5, 2024. https://notechforice.com/palantir/.