Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff \u2018joked\u2019 with employees who had traveled to the United States for a Salesforce all-hands meeting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were in the building keeping tabs on them, 404 Media has learned.Multiple employees told 404 Media about the joke, and 404 Media obtained internal Slack chats showing employees discussing it. Benioff was giving the opening keynote at the Salesforce CKO event in Las Vegas on Tuesday, which is a major Salesforce meeting \u2018kicking off\u2019 its strategy for the year. In his keynote, Benioff thanked international employees for traveling to the United States for the meeting, and asked them to stand. Benioff then said that ICE agents were in the building to keep tabs on them.The comments instantly became a major topic of conversation on Saleforce\u2019s internal Slack, with shocked employees trying to figure out if they had misheard the CEO. One employee asked \u201cwhat was the ice joke?\u201d Another employee responded \u201cIf you\u2019re visiting from outside the United States, please stand \u2026 ICE is keeping track of that.\u201d Another said the joke was \u201cPlease stand if you traveled here from abroad! Thank you! Just so the ICE agents know.\u201d And a third wrote that the joke was, \u201croughly, \u2018Please everyone stand who traveled here internationally.\u2019 And then while they are still standing, \u2018there are ICE agents in the hall to keep tabs on you.\u2019\u201d\u201cThe room groaned,\u201d one employee wrote on Slack. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t believe he said that.\u201dSalesforce\u2019s contracts with ICE have been controversial within the company, which is part of why employees weren\u2019t happy with Benioff\u2019s joke.\u00a0San Francisco’s Gazetteer first reported on Benioff\u2019s remarks.\ud83d\udca1Do you know anything else about Benioff’s comments or Salesforce? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at jason.404. Otherwise, send me an email at jason@404media.co.This is an example of \u201cSilicon Valley CEOs and their inability to divorce ICE and the complete lack of understanding of why that makes them monsters,\u201d a Salesforce employee told 404 Media. \u201cEmployees are going absolutely apeshit in internal Slack about how completely awful it was.\u201d Another employee told 404 Media that Benioff \u201cthen followed it up with a joke about not understanding the message of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance. On its own just seems out of touch, but coupled with the previous joke it does seem worse.\u201dIn a Slack channel called \u201c#airing-of-grievances,\u201d employees posted a meme of a Nazi officer that read \u201cAre we the baddies?\u201d Another wrote \u201cSerious question: would a statement of apology\/recognition\/whatever by someone (anyone) actually do anything at this point? Or has a rubicon of sorts been crossed?\u201d A third wrote \u201cIt\u2019s super uncomfortable to me that this has been glossed over like ZERO mention of hey we hear your comments and your voice matters.\u201dAnother employee created an \u201cICE OUT\u201d emoji and noted that it was a \u201clow impact probably fluffy mini protest but I made this emoji for my status so it\u2019s abundantly clear that I do not endorse or align with the values being joked about at this company.\u201d More than 150 employees reacted to the message with the emoji. Another employee wrote \u201cI literally thought I was hallucinating or misread what came out of his mouth. Disbelief and disappointment\u2014is this how we model humanistic compassion as a world-class company? Stop talking about money and profit for a minute, ffs.\u201d\u00a0Other employees shared links to donate to causes protecting immigrants, and another wrote \u201cI can\u2019t believe that the man that faced down Governor Mike Pence in the name of equality just made ICE jokes after asking international employees to stand up.\u201d\u00a0ICE, of course, has been violently detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants across the United States. But there have also been many high-profile cases of people simply visiting the United States on tourist visas or for short-term stays being detained because of minor clerical issues or things that they had posted on their social media.\u00a0In October, Salesforce told ICE that it would be willing to allow the agency to use its AI to hire, and said the company was well-placed to help ICE \u201cto nearly triple its work force by hiring 10,000 new officers and agents expeditiously.\u201dSalesforce did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"