[[link removed]]

WANT TO STOP ICE? GO AFTER ITS CORPORATE COLLABORATORS  
[[link removed]]


 

Eric Blanc, Claire Sandberg, Wes McEnany
January 9, 2026
Labor Politics
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ ICE can’t function without help from the private sector. So we
should force the private sector to stop helping. _

, Robin Lubbock/WBUR

 

Renee Nicole Good’s murder
[[link removed]]
by an ICE agent in Minneapolis has left millions of Americans
wondering how we can stop ICE from terrorizing our communities any
further. There are many well-known ICE-fighting tactics that we can
and should use, like protests, know-your-rights trainings, and
neighborhood watches. But two recent victories show a promising,
relatively underutilized path forward—one that deserves to be
pursued further: we can target businesses to break from ICE.

ICE relies heavily on the private sector to help carry out its
Gestapo-like crusade against immigrants and their allies. Without the
logistical, financial, and political support of business, its capacity
to terrorize our communities would crumble.

Over the past week, activists around the country successfully pushed
[[link removed]]
Avelo Airlines to stop running deportation charter flights, and
workers
[[link removed]]
in Minneapolis pushed a local Hilton affiliate to stop renting rooms
to ICE agents. But these wins are just a fraction of what could be
achieved if the millions of people who are outraged by ICE’s
thuggery organize to pressure _all_ companies to stop working with
ICE.

(Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

TRUMP’S PILLARS OF SUPPORT

 
Anti-authoritarian scholars and organizers stress that the most
important thing for pro-democracy movements to do is to peel away a
regime’s “pillars of support.”
[[link removed]]
Even the most despotic of regimes can’t rule without the backing or
consent of powerful external institutions. Businesses are society’s
most important non-state institutions, and most of the biggest ones in
America are collaborating with Trump, making themselves a very steady
pillar of support for his rule.

These mega-corporations have immense financial and political power. It
may seem like there’s nothing to be done to bring them to heel. But
the successes with Avelo Airlines and the Minneapolis Hilton—as well
as earlier pressure campaigns like the #Tesla Takedown, the fight to
force Disney to rehire Jimmy Kimmel, and the boycott of Target over
its Trump-friendly anti-DEI moves—show the immense leverage that
consumers and workers have when provided an opportunity. We are _not
_powerless, and there are concrete actions anyone can take to start
eroding Trump’s support from big business.

Consumer pressure campaigns can start with petition gathering and
social media callouts, then escalate to coordinated one-day boycotts.
Workers have even more leverage: employees can circulate internal
petitions calling on their CEOs to cut ties with ICE and organize
collective actions like sick-outs.

Tactics can include rallies in front of targeted stores, flyering
customers about a company’s ICE contracts or collaboration, and
nonviolent civil disobedience that makes clear that business as usual
won’t stand. Other creative ideas include setting up anonymous tip
lines for employees to whistleblow on non-public ICE collaborations,
pressuring job sites like Monster.com and Indeed to stop featuring ICE
job listings, asking local small businesses to post “Immigrants
Welcome Here” placards, and writing online reviews calling out
companies’ collaboration with ICE.

The key is providing people with concrete, outwards-facing activities
they can take right now, while building an escalating national
campaign that can culminate in larger coordinated days of nonviolent
disruption—for example, on May 1, 2026 [[link removed]].

National online mass calls and trainings can give large numbers of
people the tools they need to get started. National unions, immigrant
rights groups, and organizations like Indivisible and the Democratic
Socialists of America can leverage their volunteer activists and
resources to help launch and support the campaign. And high-profile
politicians like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, Chris Murphy, and Zohran Mamdani can use their
platforms to build momentum around this urgent fight.

CORPORATE TARGETS

 
The most strategic corporate targets fall into three categories:
low-lift national targets, high-lift national targets, and local
targets.

LOW-LIFT NATIONAL TARGETS are mostly public-facing companies with
relatively small ICE contracts that are set to expire soon, making
them particularly vulnerable to consumer and employee pressure.
Campaigns against companies like these can play a crucial role in
generating further momentum against ICE, Trump, and their worst
corporate collaborators.

Here are some examples:

* DELL ($18.8 million contract
[[link removed]]
with ICE for Microsoft software licenses, expiring March 2026)
* UPS ($90,500 small package delivery contract
[[link removed]]
with ICE, expiring March 2026)
* FEDEX ($1 million delivery services contract
[[link removed]]
with ICE, expiring March 2026)
* MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS ($15.6 million tactical communication
infrastructure contract
[[link removed]]
with ICE, expiring May 2026)
* COMCAST ($24,600 internet services contract
[[link removed]-]
for ICE Seattle office, expiring May 2026 — this could be a great
fight for new mayor Katie Wilson to take on).
* AT&T ($83 million IT and network contract
[[link removed]]
with ICE, with a potential end date of July 2032).
* LEXISNEXIS ($21 million data-brokerage contract
[[link removed]]
with ICE — this company is particularly vulnerable to pressure from
university students and professor unions, since much of its revenue
comes from colleges.)
* HOME DEPOT AND LOWE’S are using
[[link removed]]
AI-powered license plate readers and feeding this data into law
enforcement surveillance systems accessible to ICE. Their parking lots
are also regular sites
[[link removed]]
of ICE raids targeting day laborers.

HIGH-LIFT NATIONAL TARGETS have deeper relationships with ICE, and
will be harder to pressure. But two in particular need to be tackled.

* AMAZON provides
[[link removed]]
ICE with the digital backbone for its data and surveillance operations
through Amazon Web Services. Amazon’s Whole Foods stores are a rich
potential target for nonviolent disruption on big days of action.
* PALANTIR provides
[[link removed]]
ICE with core data platforms that integrate and analyze information
from many databases so agents can search, link, and manage deportation
operations.

It will take longer to force these behemoths—the two worst corporate
collaborators with ICE—to cut their ties, but it’s essential to
publicize their centrality to Trump’s deportation machine.

LOCAL TARGETS can be found in communities across the country, where
hundreds of smaller business have ICE contracts. Local activists can
research and target these businesses—from contractors providing
services to ICE offices to suppliers selling equipment—creating
distributed pressure campaigns in every region where ICE operates.
Hotels that rent rooms to ICE agents are particularly vulnerable
targets, as the Minneapolis example demonstrated, and hospitality
unions can play a key role in these campaigns.

DEFEND IMMIGRANTS, DEFEAT TRUMPISM

 
Breaking companies from ICE is a winnable struggle that can put
serious pressure on the administration by raising the political cost
of mass deportations and damaging ICE’s ability to function. No
administration can survive long without the consent of corporate
America.

Obviously, the stakes are highest for our undocumented friends and
family members. But this fight impacts all of us. To stop Trump’s
authoritarian oligarchy, we need millions of people — well beyond
our normal circles of activists — to join the fight.

Who is going to stop Trump from invading more countries and stealing
the 2026 and 2028 elections if not a mass movement from below? Who is
going to force politicians, whether Republicans or Democrats, to stand
up for immigrant communities? Who is going to make corporations pay a
price for collaborating with the Trump regime? We need to start
building
[[link removed]]
the organizing muscle and connective tissue _now_ for widespread
nonviolent disruption. Strategic organizing to win justice for all is
the best way to honor the memory of Renee Nicole Good and the
countless other victims of Trump’s inhumanity at home and abroad.

_[__Republished from The Nation_
[[link removed]]_]_

_ERIC BLANC is a professor of labor studies at Rutgers University. He
writes the __Labor Politics_ [[link removed]]_
newsletter on Substack. His latest book is __We Are the Union: How
Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big_
[[link removed]]_._

_WES MCENANY is a longtime union organizer and was the Deputy Labor
Policy Director of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, &
Pensions._

_CLAIRE SANDBERG was the national organizing director for Bernie
Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign. She is the founder of Crowdwave
Campaigns._

_Eric Blanc @ laborpolitics  My substack is laborpolitics.com.  I am
an orgainizer trainer in the Emergency Workplace Organizing
Committee. _

_Eric Blanc is author of "We Are The Union: How
Worker-to-WorkerOrganizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big_

_Subscribe to laborpolitics_ [[link removed]]

Subscribe to Labor Politics (Working-Class Organizing and Politics)
[[link removed]]

* Labor
[[link removed]]
* organizing
[[link removed]]
* unions
[[link removed]]
* Immigration and Customs Enforcement
[[link removed]]
* big business
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Bluesky [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]