by Maximillian Alvarez | Feb 27, 2026 | big tech, Gaza, ICE, Israel, Palestine, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Working People
In just six months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) more than tripled the amount of data stored on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, The Guardian reports, “at the same time that its arsenal of surveillance technology ballooned.” This week, tech workers with the No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) campaign staged a protest and informational picket at Microsoft’s global headquarters in Redmond, Washington, demanding that Microsoft cancel all contracts that provide technological support for Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and ICE’s campaign of terror in the US. We speak with Ibtihal, a former software engineer at Microsoft and an organizer with the NOAA campaign.
Additional links/info:
No Azure for Apartheid Instagram and Linktree
Harry Davies & Yuval Abraham, The Guardian, “ICE reliance on Microsoft technology surged amid immigration crackdown, documents show”
Maximillian Alvarez, TRNN, “‘Microsoft workers refuse to be complicit in the genocide’”
Maximillian Alvarez, TRNN, “Microsoft cancels Israeli spy unit access after tech worker revolt”
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “The biggest labor story in the US right now is happening at Microsoft”
Featured Music:
Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
I got work to do. All right. Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and is brought to you in partnership within these Times Magazine and the Real News Network. This show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you. My name is
by Nada Hassanein | Feb 27, 2026 | Antibiotics, ICE, immigration jails, Measles, News, Public Health, Trump Administration, Tuberculosis
In Johnson County, Iowa, the number of tuberculosis cases has increased in recent years — and so has the cost of containing it. The cost of contact tracing and surveillance, traveling each day to patients’ homes to ensure they take their meds or booking hotel rooms to quarantine patients, has surged from $17,000 in 2020 to $65,000 last year. That doesn’t include $13,000…
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by Brad Reed | Feb 25, 2026 | Adam Schiff, CBP, Customs and Border Protection, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of Homeland Security, DHS, ICE, News, Policing, weapons
A report produced by the office of Sen. Adam Schiff reveals that federal immigration enforcement agencies amassed a gigantic weapons stockpile during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term. In total, the report released by Schiff (D-Calif.) finds that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) committed to spending over $144 million on…
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by Nick Turse | Feb 24, 2026 | Colorado, Denver, ICE, Militarism, News Analysis, Trump Administration, Vietnam, White Supremacists
Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers pulled over several cars in Eagle County, Colorado. They took the people away in handcuffs, according to a witness, and left the cars idling at the side of the road. When family members of the disappeared immigrants arrived, there was no sign of their loved ones. What they found instead were customized ace of spades playing cards that read…
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by Sonali Kolhatkar | Feb 24, 2026 | ICE, LGBTQ activism, Minneapolis, News, Organizing, Somali
When Donald Trump made Minnesota an epicenter for his aggressive anti-immigrant assault, Minnesotans offered the nation a powerful and effective model of loving resistance and solidarity. Throughout the sustained resistance to Trump’s occupation of Minnesota, LGBTQ+ residents and activists have played a central role. That role was thrown into sharp relief after Immigration and Customs…
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by Kelly Hayes | Feb 24, 2026 | ICE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Op-Ed, Operation Metro Surge, Protests
Official narratives can be deceiving, and that is especially true in this political moment. The Department of Homeland Security has declared that fewer than 500 federal immigration agents are currently deployed in Minnesota, after announcing that its monthslong assault on Minneapolis and surrounding areas, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, was coming to an end. But as Francis, an organizer with the…
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