JEWS AND ALLIES DISRUPT AMAZON CAREER DAY, DEMAND AMAZON CUT TIES WITH ICE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JEWS AND ALLIES DISRUPT AMAZON CAREER DAY, DEMAND AMAZON CUT TIES WITH ICE
September 17, 2019
CONTACT: Blair Nodelman
TWITTER THREAD: https://twitter.com/NeverAgainActn/status/1174084196295303168
BOSTON- On Tuesday, September 17th, 14 Jews, immigrants and allies disrupted an Amazon Career Day event at Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts in the South End. Demonstrators asked job-seekers to avoid applying for positions at Amazon and its subsidiaries until the organization breaks its contracts with ICE and DHS. Additionally, they encouraged current employees to internally pressure the company to cease collaboration with immigrant oppressors. This demonstration was led by Never Again Action, a group of Jews taking direct action against ICE and its enablers. It follows the protest earlier this month where Never Again Action entered the lobby of the Amazon Cambridge office and blocked traffic on the Longfellow Bridge.
“Tech is not neutral. Amazon today is providing the technology to enable the identification, round up, detention and deportation of immigrants in this country,” said Sarah O’Connor, one of the action organizers. “IBM built the systems that enabled the Nazis to track, detain, deport and ultimately murder millions of people. I wish people had taken action to shut down IBM to prevent the Holocaust and so we are doing today what we wish people had done for the Jews in the 1930s. As Jews, we know too well what happens next.”
Amazon has been described as “the invisible backbone of ICE’s immigration crackdown.” As part of up to billions in contracts with the Department of Homeland Security, Amazon stores the biometric data of over 230 million people, including fingerprints, face records and iris scans. Amazon Web Services also hosts the case management software used by ICE, which is run by Palantir. Last year, Amazon offered to sell its facial recognition technology to ICE to target and detain immigrants. These services actively facilitate family separation, the indefinite detention of children, and all the horrors of Trump’s deportation machine.
“Never agains means never again for anyone. As Jews we feel a moral obligation to take a stand against ICE and its colluders in this immigration crisis,” says organizer Julia Davidovitz. “It is time Amazon and other organizations working with ICE recognize the role they play in the unjust treatment of immigrants. Will Amazon and its employees go down in history aiding and abetting a massive violation of human rights, or will they cut ties and stand with us in support of immigrants?”
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Never Again Action is a mass mobilization of Jews who are organizing to shut down ICE and hold the political establishment accountable for enabling both the deportation machine that has separated immigrant families across the U.S. for decades and the current crisis at the border.
We come together as a group of differently affiliated Jewish organizers, recognizing that we have seen this groundwork laid before. We understand it to be our community’s obligation to stand up when we see history repeat itself and to declare that Never Again means Never Again for anybody.