Salesforce pitched AI to turbocharge ICE hiring as Conway quits foundation

A private memo meets a public rupture.

Salesforce pitched Immigration and Customs Enforcement on using its software and A.I. to “nearly triple” the agency’s workforce, according to internal documents first reported in the Times’ exclusive on Salesforce’s ICE pitch. Hours after that report, longtime ally Ron Conway resigned from the Salesforce Foundation board, saying Marc Benioff’s recent calls for National Guard troops in San Francisco and his embrace of President Trump broke with the city—and with Conway’s values.

Start with the ICE plan

The Aug. 26 memo answered an ICE request for information and laid out how Salesforce could help recruit 10,000 officers and agents using “aggressive, high-yield marketing.” Screenshots described A.I. agents that would score tip-line leads and speed investigations, plus a pipeline of ICE “opportunities” in Salesforce’s parlance. When a sales executive posted that the memo was “out the door,” colleagues replied with fire emojis. Salesforce didn’t dispute the documents’ authenticity to the Times. It said it serves the U.S. government under both parties and expects customers to follow its use policies.

The crux isn’t whether Salesforce sells to federal agencies. It already has. The shift is scale and method—consumer-grade funnel optimization applied to the enforcement state. That lands differently in a sanctuary city.

Key Takeaways

• Salesforce pitched ICE on AI to recruit 10,000 agents using "aggressive marketing," per Times-obtained internal documents

• Ron Conway quit Salesforce Foundation after 25 years, citing Benioff's Trump support and "willful ignorance" on ICE raids

• Benioff shifted from 2016 Clinton fundraiser to Trump ally; feds now Salesforce's "largest customer" at billions annually

• Company forecasts $60B revenue by 2030, acknowledges government ties risk "negative publicity or reputational harm"

Then came the Conway break

Conway’s exit was blunt. In an email to Benioff and other directors, he wrote that he was “shocked and disappointed” by the call for troops and by “willful ignorance” about the impacts of recent ICE raids. The investor—who has backed Democrats for years and helped seed Google, Airbnb, and Stripe—had sat on the foundation board for more than a decade. Salesforce thanked him in a statement and pointed to new education grants. The damage was done. The split became the story of Dreamforce week.

Local leaders piled on. San Francisco officials noted that reported crime has been trending down. State Sen. Scott Wiener called it “completely unacceptable” for a hometown firm to help ICE scale up. The politics are raw. So is the optics of sales Slack celebrating an immigration-enforcement proposal as an “amazing” deal.

Benioff’s political turn

For years, Benioff was the billionaire face of liberal San Francisco: a 2016 fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, a 2018 push to tax big businesses for homeless services, and a travel freeze to Indiana over an anti-LGBTQ law. That brand no longer holds. In a Times interview last week, he said he “fully supports” Trump and welcomed the National Guard in San Francisco. “If they can be cops, I’m all for it.” He later softened the line on X, saying safety was a city and state responsibility, but the clip traveled. Trump amplified it. So did Elon Musk.

At Dreamforce, Benioff showcased the “agentic enterprise”, A.I. agents that act across a company’s stack and hosted Trump adviser David Sacks for a friendly onstage chat. He has also stressed that he’s not progressive, describing himself as a former Republican turned independent. None of that is illegal. It is clarifying. Salesforce is aligning with power that can approve budgets and sign contracts.

The business bedrock

Here’s the substrate beneath the swirl. Salesforce says the U.S. government is now its “largest and most important customer,” with contracts worth billions across Defense, Coast Guard, and Veterans Affairs. The company used Dreamforce to project more than $60 billion in revenue by 2030, above Wall Street’s consensus and unveiled a $7 billion buyback. It is also integrating its pending Informatica acquisition to feed A.I. products like Agentforce 360.

Investors cheered the forecast. Government work helps explain it. Federal contracts are durable, sizable, and less cyclical than commercial sales. They also come with fine print. Salesforce’s filings warn that certain government relationships can cause “negative publicity or reputational harm.” This week is the footnote coming due.

What’s actually new

Two things changed at once. First, the product pitch moved from generic CRM to staffing the state: identifying and persuading the “talent profile” that “drives ICE mission success,” as the memo put it. Second, the CEO shifted from civic booster to Trump-era ally. Put together, the company now sells optimization to an administration expanding deportations while its leader argues San Francisco needs soldiers on downtown streets. That’s not a stray quote. It’s strategy and sales converging.

The open questions

Will customers especially Bay Area enterprises and nonprofits treat this as routine government work or as a line-crossing? Will employees revive the 2018 pressure campaign that targeted the company’s Customs and Border Protection contract? And how much of that $60 billion 2030 target depends on winning more enforcement-adjacent deals? The answers will show whether reputational risk truly prices in or whether it compounds.

Why this matters

Optimization is neutral. Policy isn’t. When CRM logic meets enforcement goals, A.I. can scale consequences faster than democratic oversight can react.
Federal revenue brings stability and scrutiny. The more a platform depends on Washington, the more its politics—and its partners—shape the product roadmap.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What happened when Salesforce faced pressure over ICE contracts in 2018?

A: When Trump's first administration separated families at the border, employees and activists demanded Salesforce cancel its Customs and Border Protection contract. Benioff didn't cancel it but offered $250,000 to an immigrant legal services center. Executive director Jonathan Ryan rejected the money, calling it dirty. Benioff promised to visit Texas to see the crisis. He never went.

Q: What does the Salesforce Foundation actually do?

A: The foundation focuses on education and workforce development for disadvantaged youth. It donated $36 million in 2023 and holds about $400 million in assets, according to tax filings. This week it announced $30 million for public schools. Conway served on the board for over a decade before resigning Thursday.

Q: How much revenue does Salesforce get from government contracts?

A: Benioff said in September the U.S. government is Salesforce's "largest and most important customer" with contracts worth billions across the Army, Coast Guard, and Veterans Affairs. The company didn't break out exact federal revenue, but it's projecting total revenue above $60 billion by 2030—up from roughly $38 billion currently.

Q: What other tech companies work with ICE?

A: Palantir is ICE's major data analytics partner, building systems that track immigration enforcement operations. Microsoft and IBM also have agency contracts. Most major cloud providers serve federal law enforcement in some capacity. Salesforce isn't alone—it's the pitch to use AI for mass recruitment that's drawing scrutiny in a sanctuary city.

Q: How would AI help ICE hire thousands of agents?

A: The August 26 memo described "aggressive, high-yield marketing" to reach recruits at scale—basically applying consumer sales tactics to government hiring. AI would identify ideal candidate profiles, target them with recruitment messages, and optimize conversion rates. Think of it like Amazon recommending products, but for filling deportation officer positions.