Googlers-Against-ICE Factsheet

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2019: Google gives CBP a free Cloud trial

Date: 2019-08-09

In a secret decision involving a third-party seller, Google pushed through an exception that allowed CBP to begin testing its then-new "hybrid-cloud product Anthos", before all other customers in line to begin using the product. Five days later, Google workers launched the No-GCP-for-CBP petition.

Sources:

  • Business Insider: Google pushed an exception through to allow US Customs and Border Protection to try a key cloud product free, even as 1,300 Google employees protest any work with the agency

2019: Google workers launch anti-DHS petition

Date: 2019-08-14

In August 2019, Google workers became alerted to the fact that CBP would soon request bids on a "massive cloud computing contract". They launched a petition to Google leadership that they (leadership) respect Google's long-held AI Principles and its workplace psychological safety guidelines with respect to its workers from communities targeted by CBP and ICE. The petition gained mainstream media attention.

Sources:

2020: Google AI used for Trump's border wall

Date: 2020-10-21

On this day, the Intercept released documents showing that Google AI would be installed in the Anduril-made CBP border wall cameras to surveil migrants.

Sources:

  • The Intercept: Google AI tech will be used for virtual border wall, CBP contract shows

2021: Google secretly made DHS contracts through intermediaries

Date: 2021-10-04

Business Insider discovers that Google established multiple cloud computing contracts with DHS third-party contractors, even as Google Cloud CEO was denying the existence of any contracts:

"In October 2020, Google Cloud's CEO, Thomas Kurian, told staff that Google technology would not be used for immigration enforcement at the southern border, CNBC reported at the time. Google was involved in at least four contracts with CBP, all through third-party contractors, when Kurian made that statement, according to records that Insider reviewed."

Sources:

  • Business Insider: Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have taken advantage of a commonly used but little-known tool to quietly enter dozens of contracts with ICE and CBP

  • CNBC: Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian tells employees it isn’t helping with virtual border wall

2022: Google Cloud signs with Palantir's Foundry

Date: 2022-06-16

On this day, Google Cloud announced that "Palantir Technologies is making Foundry, its fully managed SaaS platform, available on Google Cloud and Google Cloud Marketplace". It is now known that Foundry is the software that enables Palantir's ImmigrationOS system to "ingest, correlate, and analyze vast amounts of disparate data from multiple government and commercial sources".

Sources:

  • Google Cloud: Palantir and Google Cloud partner to power data-driven transformations in commercial industries

  • Red Team News: Palantir’s ImmigrationOS: A Technical Analysis of ICE’s Deportation Infrastructure

2022: A dozen more Google contracts with DHS third-parties discovered

Date: 2022-09-30

Business Insider discovers additional cloud compute contracts between Google and DHS:

"Google used third parties to work with DOD agencies at least 16 times and DHS agencies at least six times since September 1, 2021, including two contracts with US Customs and Border Protection...Many companies use third parties to sell their technology to the government — doing so is often cheaper. But in the case of Google and Amazon, there's the added benefit of sidestepping the public scrutiny that comes with contracts explicitly in their name.

[Google's] DHS contracts include three for Citizenship and Immigration Services and two for CBP. One of these CBP contracts is a $20,000 one for "Google Cloud Platform Services" through the third-party reseller Thundercat Technology, and the other is a $200,000 one for "one year of Google Cloud SW licenses" through the third-party reseller Panamerica Computers."

Sources:

  • Business Insider: Google and Amazon ignore employee protests and plow ahead with deals involving the US military, ICE, and CBP

2023: Google Cloud collects border wall data in CBP revamp

Date: 2023-07-01

Leaked CBP documents dated back to July 2023 reveal that Google Cloud systems play a critical role in allowing CBP border wall data to be readily accessible to CBP analysts:

"Tying together these machine learning surveillance tools is Google, which the document reveals is supplying CBP with a cloud computing platform known as MAGE: the ModulAr Google Cloud Platform Environment. Based on the document, Google is providing a hub for video surveillance data and will directly host the Equitus AI analysis tool. It appears every camera in CBP’s Tucson Sector will pipe data into Google servers: 'This project will focus initially on 100 simultaneous video streams from the data source for processing,' the document reads, and 'the resulting metadata and keyframes will be sent to CBP’s Google Cloud.'"

Sources:

  • The Intercept: Google Is Helping the Trump Administration Deploy AI Along the Mexican Border

2024: Google Vertex AI a "game-changer" for CBP

Date: 2024-10-07

From the FedScoop article linked below:

"[Jay] Alalasundaram [CBP Chief Software Officer] pointed specifically to Google’s Vertex AI system, which allows CBP staffers to 'search across disparate data sources' and integrate that data into one entity. 'It’s an absolute game-changer,' he said."

"For border patrol agents serving in especially remote locations, getting that data to them quickly has 'always been somewhat of a challenge,' according to James. But the agency is seeing a difference in moving from cloud AI, which processes data on external servers and depends in part on a reliable internet connection, to edge AI, which processes data on devices and performs better in isolated areas."

Sources:

  • FedScoop: For Customs and Border Protection, AI has been a ‘game-changer’

2025: Google sends ICE information on student activists

Date: 2025-03-31

In the Spring of 2025, Homeland Security Investigations -- the intelligence division of ICE -- sent subpoenas to Google and Meta for sensitive data about two graduate students at Cornell University, Momodou Taal and Amandla Thomas-Johnson. ICE illegally targeted them for exercising their right to free speech on campus. Google handed over the data before notifying Thomas-Johnson or giving him an opportunity to challenge the subpoena.

...on the last day of March, HSI sent yet another subpoena, this one to Google for information about Thomas-Johnson’s Gmail account. Without giving Thomas-Johnson any advance warning or the opportunity to challenge it, Google complied with the subpoena, and it only notified him weeks later. “Google has received and responded to legal process from a Law Enforcement authority compelling the release of information related to your Google Account,” read an email Google sent him in early May.

Sources:

  • The Intercept: Google Secretly Handed ICE Data About Pro-Palestine Student Activist

2025: Google drops ICE tracker apps from the Play store

Date: 2025-10-04

Google bows to DOJ pressure, removing an ICE tracker app called Red Dot:

"Both Google and Apple recently removed Red Dot, an app people can use to report sightings of ICE officials, from their respective app stores, 404 Media has found. The move comes after Apple removed ICEBlock, a much more prominent app, from its App Store on Thursday following direct pressure from U.S. Department of Justice officials. Google told 404 Media it removed apps because they shared the location of what it describes as a vulnerable group that recently faced a violent act connected to these sorts of ICE-spotting apps—a veiled reference to ICE officials."

Sources:

  • 404 Media: Google Calls ICE Agents a Vulnerable Group, Removes ICE-Spotting App ‘Red Dot’