Marc Benioff’s ICE ‘Joke’ Sparks Huge Community Backlash
Marc Benioff is coming under intense pressure from the Salesforce ecosystem after making a ‘joke’ which many found distasteful about ICE at a Salesforce event – sparking backlash from employees and the once-loyal Salesforce community.
The CEO, who founded Salesforce in 1999, reportedly asked attendees who had travelled from overseas to the Las Vegas Company Kickoff event on Tuesday to identify themselves by standing up. Benioff then joked that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were in the building to keep tabs on them.
Marc Benioff’s ICE ‘Joke’
Particulars of the joke vary somewhat in their recountings, but the gist of the joke, as reported by 404 Media, was: “If you’re visiting from outside the United States, please stand… ICE is keeping track of that.”
An employee wrote on Slack that the room “groaned”, reports say. One screenshot of a Slack message, seen by Business Insider, says: “A joke about ICE surveilling employees’ travel, when there are literally employees afraid to travel for work due to the current situation.”
SF Ben has been made aware of internal messages from Salesforce’s ‘airing of grievances’ Slack channels outlining how an employee letter seeking clarity on Salesforce’s relationship with ICE has been drafted, collecting more than 1,300 signatures.
According to the International Business Times, one worker created a meme featuring the phrase, ‘Are we the baddies?’ This is an apparent reference to a famous Mitchell and Webb comedy sketch.
Salesforce MVPs Speak Out
A number of Salesforce MVPs and notable ecosystem voices have been criticizing Benioff for the comments, with many demanding an apology from the CEO.
Amber Boaz wrote on LinkedIn: “Joking about immigration enforcement while asking international employees to stand is not humor. It’s a reminder of fear that many people live with every day. That kind of ‘joke’ lands as intimidation, not levity, and it has no place in a workplace that claims to value trust, safety, and belonging.”
Geoffrey Bessereau-Fournier said: “Salesforce has spent years telling us about Trust. Equality. Ohana. Some of us took that seriously. Some of us built careers and communities around it. Some of us stood in front of rooms and repeated those words because we thought they meant something. They should mean something.”
Louise Lockie replied to Geoffrey’s post: “Thank you for putting into words what so many of us are feeling right now.”
Vicki Moritz-Henry also replied: “You’ve perfectly articulated what so many of us are thinking right now. I agree wholeheartedly and miss the company that puts values and humans first.“
Michelle Hansen wrote on LinkedIn: “I don’t want an apology that isn’t genuine – that isn’t backed by actual reflection, an understanding of why this was so wrong, and tangible, meaningful, and sustained changes in behavior.”
Tom Bassett shared Michelle’s post, simply adding: “#NotMyOhana”
A Shift Away From His Historic Position?
Many community members have pointed out how Salesforce and Benioff seemed to stand for socially progressive causes historically, and how the corporation often touts its culture of ‘Ohana’, along with its core values of trust, customer success, innovation, equality, and sustainability.
Benioff’s ICE joke, along with other recent controversies like suggesting President Donald Trump should send National Guard troops to San Francisco ahead of Dreamforce, seem to go against those values, community members have said. Benioff later apologized for the National Guard comment.
According to the SF Gazetteer, amid the recent ICE controversy, one employee wrote on an internal Slack channel:“It’s hard to believe this company still has values when you make completely off-base jokes about ICE in your opening keynote. That’s unacceptable.”
Another reportedly said that the jokes were “tone-deaf and quite cruel,” and go against Salesforce’s value of equality.
Benioff, who is estimated by Forbes to be worth $7.5B, has historically been one of the loudest voices in Silicon Valley on issues of equality for LGBT people, women, and minorities. In 2015, he spearheaded a campaign against an Indiana law allowing discrimination against LGBT people on religious grounds.
Benioff has also been outspoken on the issue of promoting work and pay equality, and championed causes like tackling homelessness and environmentalism.
In recent years, however, particularly since Donald Trump’s second presidential term, Benioff appears to be aligning himself closer with the American right-wing.
Benioff had once held a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, but, in late 2025, the CEO appeared with Trump during his state visit to London.
In September 2017, amid political discourse about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allows some immigrants who entered the United States as minors and without documents to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation, Benioff tweeted ‘DACA = LOVE’, as part of a wave of Silicon Valley support for the policy.
Salesforce has recently secured a $5.6B, 10-year contract with the US Army to bring the capabilities of Missionforce, the CRM’s AI national security unit, to the Department of War (DOW).
Salesforce employees are now circulating an internal letter to Marc Benioff calling on him to denounce recent actions by ICE, prohibit the use of Salesforce software by immigration agents, and back federal legislation that would significantly reform the agency, according to Wired.
Reports say the letter cites the ‘recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis’, calling them a ‘devastating indictment of a system that has discarded human decency’.
SF Ben has contacted Salesforce for comment.
Summary
Marc Benioff reportedly joked about ICE agents monitoring Salesforce employees who had traveled to a Las Vegas conference from overseas. Employees and ecosystem voices have been criticizing the CEO – who has historically championed progressive causes.
Some are demanding an apology from him.
