Google workers’ petition against Border Patrol contract gains steam

With close to 800 signatures, employees call on company to not bid on cloud contract

A petition launched by Google employees calling on the company to not bid on a cloud- computing contract with the Border Patrol gained more ground Thursday, one day after the effort became public via a post on the Medium blog site.

The petition — which as of Thursday included the signatures of 738 Google employees, or “Googlers,” and 56 other “supporters” — became public as the U. S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) department said it will soon begin taking bids for a huge cloud- computing contract. The Googlers say they don’t want the company, which provides cloud- computing services to businesses, working with a government agency that, according to the petition, “is currently engaged in human rights abuses at the U. S. Southern border.”

The petitioners argue that the Border Patrol, in conjunction with the U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, is complicit in implementing policies of the Trump Administration “that ( have) led to the deaths of at least 7 children in detention camps” near the U. S. border with Mexico.

“They (CBP) are caging and harming asylum seekers, separating children from parents, illegally detaining refugees and U. S. citizens, and perpetrating a system of abuse and malign neglect,” according to the Google employees’ petition. “These abuses are illegal under international human rights law, and immoral by any standard.”

The petitioners said that should Google bid on — and receive — the cloud contract with the CBP, the company

would be “trading its integrity for a bit of profit, and joining a shameful lineage.” The petition also mentioned allegations that IBM provided some technological services to Nazi Germany prior to the involvement of the United States. in World War II

Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the petition.