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GitHub Faces More Resignations In Light of ICE Contract (techcrunch.com) 226

TechCrunch reports that another employee, engineer Alice Goldfuss, has resigned from GitHub over the company's $200,000 contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). From the report: In a tweet, Goldfuss said GitHub has a number of problems to address and that "ICE is only the latest." Meanwhile, Vice reports at least five staffers quit today. These resignations come the same day as GitHub Universe, the company's big product conference. Ahead of the conference, Tech Workers Coalition protested the event, setting up a cage to represent where ICE detains children.

Last month, GitHub staff engineer Sophie Haskins resigned, stating she was leaving because the company did not cancel its contract with ICE, The Los Angeles Times reported. Last month, GitHub employees penned an open letter urging the company to stop working with ICE. That came following GitHub's announcement of a $500,000 donation to nonprofit organizations in support of "immigrant communities targeted by the current administration." In that announcement, GitHub CEO Nat Friedman said ICE's purchase was made through one of GitHub's reseller partners and said the deal is not "financially material" for the company. Friedman also pointed out that ICE is responsible for more than immigration and detention facilities.

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GitHub Faces More Resignations In Light of ICE Contract

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  • Good. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    More triggered snowflake dead weight shed.

  • Job Prospects (Score:5, Insightful)

    by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2019 @09:32PM (#59412198)
    I hope they already have another job lined up that they can walk into. I'm not sure how I'd feel about someone applying for a job if I knew that they'd be likely to leave as soon as they company does business with someone they don't like. If I'm doing the interview, maybe I personally agree with them in this one particular instance, or maybe I don't, but even if I do, there's no guarantee that I would the next time.

    All that aside, I will give them kudos (and I think you should too) for actually standing up for their beliefs regardless of whether or not we agree with them. Too many people just keep their heads down and do nothing even when they're beyond fed up. Maybe it doesn't hurt them at all, or maybe they've burned a few too many bridges, but at least they'll have the satisfaction of acting in line with their consciences.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 )
      You have to draw a line somewhere. Doing business with the people who put kids in cages seems like a reasonable place to draw it.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      > for actually standing up for their beliefs

      Beliefs being the keyword. Too many people acting out on their beliefs as it is. Beliefs are like trends. People acted out on their beliefs (and still do in some parts of the world) and sacrificed babies, killed witches, and burned scientists when it was trendy to do so, nowdays not so much so nobody is "standing for their beliefs" today and burning witches.

      Anyway... good thing. If she or whoever else wants to be an activist instead of being a programmer
      • Beliefs being the keyword. Too many people acting out on their beliefs as it is.

        I think that's the rub. There's a lot of people talking the talk on Twitter, but not a lot of people walking the walk, and yet here's some people who clearly did. But put it in perspective because how many hundreds or even hundreds of thousands talked a mad game, and how many did something about it, or even just anything at all beyond raising awareness on social media or something just as useless?

        Let's put social signaling aside for a moment. I don't know any of these people so perhaps they're just idiot

    • by dissy ( 172727 )

      I'm not sure how I'd feel about someone applying for a job if I knew that they'd be likely to leave as soon as they company does business with someone they don't like. If I'm doing the interview, maybe I personally agree with them in this one particular instance, or maybe I don't, but even if I do, there's no guarantee that I would the next time.

      But isn't this always a truth, for anyone and everyone?

      Everyone has their line somewhere, we just often don't know where it is until you either get to know the person over time, or cross the line.

      This group would just be one less unknown than someone else, although yes out of countless other unknowns.

      All that aside, I will give them kudos (and I think you should too) for actually standing up for their beliefs regardless of whether or not we agree with them. Too many people just keep their heads down and do nothing even when they're beyond fed up. Maybe it doesn't hurt them at all, or maybe they've burned a few too many bridges, but at least they'll have the satisfaction of acting in line with their consciences.

      Agreed!
      Not everyone in the world is in a position to choose their morals and beliefs over their next paycheck, which is a sad situation but understandable why one in such a position would choose to keep their h

      • by djinn6 ( 1868030 )

        Seems like an inefficient way to stick to their morality.

        The actual contract might not have any effect on how ICE treats those detained, or may even have a positive effect. A more efficient ICE could end up detaining people for less time, or in better conditions. Or it could affect some completely unrelated area, such as identification and arrest of sex traffickers.

        Without knowing more about how ICE is planning to use GitHub, you can't make a judgment about whether it's good or bad.

    • working for one of the largest and most visible projects in the world. They'll be fine.
      • Perhaps not. There is considerable competition in the hosted git repository world, and in the technical support of such a large business. Resigning from such work does not provide unemployment benefits, and it can take time for senior people to find an equivalent role. It can also lead to a lower position when recruiters see that you resigned for moral reasons. I've actually had that happen when I left a workplace for moral reasons, it cost me months of salary.

    • As someone who left their last job due to taking a stand without having anything lined up, I can definitely empathize with their actions. Not everyone gave me the opportunity to explain what happened at my previous post, so I can definitely say that my future prospects were impacted by my moral compass. The thing is, I donâ(TM)t care if other places turn me down as a result. If they donâ(TM)t want to hire me because of my decisions, then perhaps, theyâ(TM)re doing me a favor by revealing thei
    • Re:Job Prospects (Score:4, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Thursday November 14, 2019 @06:14AM (#59412976) Homepage Journal

      I'd hire them. It's good to have people with a conscience on the team who will point out when things are unethical. Otherwise you end up spying on your customers, using dark patterns and generally abusing them for profit.

      You have to draw a line somewhere. Some companies like Uber seem to have misplaced their crayon but that doesn't mean we all have to.

    • If you conduct your business affairs with ethics and integrity... to include doing due diligence on vendors and partners, and rejecting the ones who have neither... then you'd have nothing to worry about. For my part, if I were running my own tech company, I sure as hell HOPE I'd never be blinded enough by the lure of filthy lucre from people like ICE to discard my own ethics, integrity, and belief that a company should "don't be evil" like Google has.

      And candidates who've not only talk of ethics and integ

  • Good deal (Score:2, Insightful)

    These SJW employees are nothing but trouble. Better they show themselves the door, it's easier for everyone that way. They're not irreplaceable and putting political activism first will be a blot on their resume that will follow them around the rest of their careers.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Going to post anon as I don't want this linked to me, but I seriously think every company should tell the employees they are doing contracts with ICE just so they can drop dangerously ideological employees from the payrolll.. a huge ticking time-bomb for any company, defused.

      And if people quit, no need for severance! Win-Win!

  • by cygnusvis ( 6168614 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2019 @09:39PM (#59412232)
    Other nations dont seem to have this problem...
    • National ID's help, except for people who want to be criminals and prostitutes they tend to not go underground because it has become harder and more expensive to be able to work.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Sure they do. For example look at how much tobacco companies operating in Europe pay for technical staff (mostly to do with vaping). It's way, way above market rate. A lot of people simply don't want to be involved with that and they have to offer money and benefits to overcome their moral objections.

    • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
      Never heard of Europe huh?
  • by magzteel ( 5013587 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2019 @10:34PM (#59412340)

    Nobody mourns when the high maintenance people in the team quit.

    • You'd be surprised (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2019 @11:47PM (#59412452)
      just becomes somebody has principles and the wherewithall to apply them doesn't mean their high maintenance. These are probably some of their best folks. Folks who can afford to leave because they know they can just go get a job working for a company that doesn't take dodgy contracts.

      It's the lesser guys who are likely to keep their heads down. The ones that know they can't just go get another job.
  • by edi_guy ( 2225738 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2019 @10:53PM (#59412372)

    People can complain or name-call about the reasons these staffers quit. But at least give them credit for sticking with their beliefs, even if they are different than your own. This issue is something they felt strongly about, they took action, and are willing to bear the consequences of their actions. Generally that's something to be applauded not mocked.

    • No, it really is not something to be applauded. Every totalitarian nightmare regime has crafted beliefs to make people do bad things. Every stupid thing every one of us has ever done was due to acting on incorrect beliefs. Standing up for these beliefs would only make us more stupid. More people need to focus on truth.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by amorsen ( 7485 )

        So on one side we have a regime who puts children in cages. On the other side we have people standing up for their beliefs.

        You are saying that it is the second group who is in the same group, despite this amazing sentence: "Every totalitarian nightmare regime has crafted beliefs to make people do bad things."

        Yes, the totalitarian nightmare regime has indeed crafted beliefs to make people do bad things.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          You and other people pointing this out are being modded "troll". That suggests that some people, who can't comment because they need to try to censor your message. Thus we can only speculate as to why they feel you are a troll.

          I'd really appreciate if someone modding people as troll could post some AC comments explaining this.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by SirAstral ( 1349985 )

      Yes, people standing up for what they believe in should be applauded... know what else some people believe in? Slaughter of others... you going to applaud the Nazi for standing up for what they believe in?

      Don't speak in platitudes, they are never right for good reasons. There are all sorts of people that stand up for what they believe in and what they believe in is just wrong or just a farce... like this person.

      People should be applauded for "doing the right thing" not for standing up for what they believ

    • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
      Yeah OK and the captain of the Titanic deserves credit for going down with his ship, but I feel it doesn't really make up for the loss of credit from hitting the iceberg in the first place...
    • "But at least give them credit for sticking with their beliefs"

      Not to Godwin this all to hell, but the Nuremburg trials were full of people who "stuck with their beliefs" to the bitter end, as was the Jim Jones compound in Guyana, the David Koresh compound that went up in flames etc etc.

      Fervent belief is not, ipso facto, something I applaud. It's generally a sign of what might be called "fucking crazy" in most contexts EVEN IF I AGREE WITH THEIR PRINCIPLES.

  • ICE is evil (Score:2, Informative)

    by beepsky ( 6008348 )
    ICE is evil.
    Fuck borders and laws and logic and shit.
  • Where will they go ? Few places will have better associations with their ideal views.
  • by melted ( 227442 ) on Thursday November 14, 2019 @12:10AM (#59412488) Homepage

    Holy shit, what's GitHub going to do without (checks the post) Alice Goldfuss. They surely are doomed now. The walls are closing in!

  • I'm betting on private repo of tortured children videos
  • Somebody clone GitHub before it goes offline!

  • by Anonymous Coward
    Quick, get ICE to adopt redhat and all the other Open Source Software that got infected with SJW cancer the last 5 or so years!
  • Western Civilization is based on slavery and exploitation of the poor. Why not leave the West and go somewhere that lives up to their principles? You know, like utopia.

  • A big part of the problem is that, in many ways, both sides want the same thing, it's just been collated to increase polarization. To lump economic tourists together with legitimate asylum seekers, however, pretty much shuts down any capability for rational discourse. Consider also the legitimate asylum seekers and the families that may be in real danger who will now be much harder to identify and filter out from the people who are not in danger, but at simply looking to improve their situation in life. In

  • How many of these people use Windows? Microsoft has tons of government contracts. What about Apple's abusive labor practices and shoddy environmental footprint?

    Do what you will, but I imagine these people are signalling virtue more than they are trying to fix anything.

  • by sad_ ( 7868 )

    yes, yes, we get it, Internal Combustion Engines are bad for the env, we should all go electric. jeez...

  • they can (and are) going to work elsewhere. I think people should quit their jobs because Democrat or Republican leaning people work there. Hey lets make everything about political agendas! Fuck it! Lets just nuke the world until it glows and solve all of the worlds problems at once. The earth will recover fine without the stupidity of the human race.

  • by The Cynical Critic ( 1294574 ) on Thursday November 14, 2019 @08:30AM (#59413246)
    Considering even Coraline Ada, who used to work there, has come out and said that the place is so politicized and toxic to the point even she couldn't stand working there and quit well short of a year in (IIRC she only worked there a bit over 6 months). We're talking about a place so hard in the paint about racial politics that white and asian men weren't allowed to mentor non-asian minority and female hires when most of their older staff were white and they were in the midst of a diversity program where they didn't anyone except women and non-asian minorities.

    So how did they solve this issue of a lot of new hires needing mentoring and most of the "old hands" not being allowed to mentor them? Simple. They just stopped having experienced workers mentor new hires altogether. This is apparently what lead to even Coraline Ada coming to the conclusion that management has just plain lost the plot with their equity and social justice company policies and decided it was time to get out of this madhouse.
    • Who is Coraline Ada? With a strange and dated name like that I automatically assume she is a time traveler who legally changed her last name to be Ada Lovelace's first name.

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