During Brown’s Career Fair last fall, members of the Brown Immigrant Rights Coalition stood in front of Amazon’s recruiting table holding signs reading “#NoTechForICE.” 

“We are trying to show students what they are really signing up for,” says Caiya Sanchez-Strauss ’21. Some tech companies that pay to recruit on campus—like Microsoft—have documented contracts with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), their products assisting in the detention, separation, and deportation of families.

After nationwide protests against Palantir, which paid the Computer Science department $15,000 for access to Brown students as an “Industry Partner,” made news, the department suspended that partnership. Professor Jeff Huang, director of Industry Partners, says the department is currently putting together “a set of guiding principles” and a committee of faculty, staff, and students to review the program.