GitHub defends ICE contract

Software development platform GitHub defended renewing its contract with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a company memo amid internal anger at the decision last week, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Employees submitted an open letter on Oct. 9 asking the company to cancel its ICE contract, saying it made the Microsoft subsidiary “complicit in widespread human rights abuses.”

Company leadership defended the decision, saying pulling out of the contract would not persuade the Trump administration to change its immigration policies, and the roughly $200,000 it made from the contract was not financially material.

“We have learned from a number of nonprofits and refugee advocates that one of the greatest challenges facing immigrants is a lack of technology at ICE and related agencies, resulting in lost case files, court date notifications not being delivered, or the wrong people being charged or deported,” read the company-wide message, which went out Oct. 22 and was signed by Chief Operating Officer Erica Brescia and other leadership.