'They Watch You': Salesforce CEO Quips About US Immigration Authorities Monitoring Staff

Salesforce employees voiced anger over CEO Marc Benioff’s remarks about US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the company’s annual event in Las Vegas. Internal Slack channels filled with criticism and disbelief, with staff questioning whether any apology could repair the damage. One employee wrote, “It’s hard to believe this company still has values when you make completely off-base jokes about ICE in your opening keynote.” In a channel called #airing-of-grievances, one meme asked, “Are we the baddies?” Several employees described their mood as going “absolutely apeshit.”

Benioff’s Remarks That Sparked Outrage During his opening keynote at Salesforce’s annual Company Kickoff, Benioff asked employees who had traveled from outside

the US to stand, then joked that ICE agents were in the building keeping tabs on them, according to reports from Wired, Business Insider and 404 Media, all of which viewed internal Slack messages. The room reportedly groaned at the comment.

The backlash was immediate. Employees flooded Slack with anger and disbelief as many expressed frustration that jokes about a government agency monitoring international staff were inappropriate and damaging to the company’s values.

Open Letter Demands Concrete Action
Employees circulated an internal open letter calling on Benioff to take a public stand against ICE. First reported by Wired, the letter urges him to condemn ICE’s “unconstitutional conduct” and set clear “red lines” barring the use of Salesforce’s cloud and AI products, including Agentforce AI, for immigration enforcement. It specifically references leaked documentation showing Salesforce had pitched the platform to help ICE hire 10,000 new agents and process tip-line reports.

The letter also cites the recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, calling them a “devastating indictment of a system that has discarded human decency.” It notes Benioff’s political influence, including his reported role last fall in persuading US President Donald Trump to halt an ICE deployment in San Francisco alongside other Bay Area tech leaders, such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.