Salesforce reportedly lays off hundreds as Benioff jokes about ICE

Salesforce employees are reportedly outraged after CEO Marc Benioff joked about Immigration and Customs Enforcement surveiling international workers at a company event.

Benioff made at least two remarks referencing ICE at the beginning of his keynote at the Las Vegas event this week, according to internal company messages expressing anger and disappointment viewed by Business Insider. Employees are now calling on Benioff to denounce ICE and prohibit immigration agents from using Salesforce, according to Wired.

Separately, the company also laid off less than 1,000 employees earlier this month, according to Business Insider. Posts on LinkedIn and the employee forum Blind also referenced layoffs.

Salesforce didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s the latest in a series of cuts by the company, which previously laid off 262 employees in San Francisco last fall. The company has around 76,000 global employees and is the city’s largest private employer.

Benioff also provoked backlash last October when he said he supported sending the National Guard to San Francisco, before later reversing course. Soon after, he helped persuade President Trump to call off an immigration enforcement “surge” in the Bay Area.

Benioff has pitched Salesforce as a way to speed up hiring ICE officers. The company’s earlier work in 2018 with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the first Trump administration sparked a protest in San Francisco, and there was a small protest last fall as well.

This article originally published at Salesforce reportedly lays off hundreds as Benioff jokes about ICE.