Some Deloitte employees have called on the New York-based accounting firm to end its consultation services for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The news comes just days after some employees at Deloitte rival McKinsey & Co. convinced company brass to end its work for ICE.
According to The New York Times, the uprising among some of Deloitte's employees was in response to ICE agents removing children from their parents when the parents were arrested for allegedly entering the United States illegally.
As of Thursday afternoon, about 750 Deloitte employees had signed a petition calling for an end to work with ICE, the Times reported. Deloitte has more than 260,000 employees.
Deloitte executives said they appreciated the employees' concern, but they didn't appear to be backing down from their commitment to work with the federal agency.
Deloitte does not do work with ICE that "directly or indirectly support the separation of families," Daniel Helfrich told employees in an email Thursday. He leads Deloitte's government practice.
The Deloitte petition comes on the heels of McKinsey’s new managing director, Kevin Sneader, issuing a statement that the firm “will not, under any circumstances, engage in any work, anywhere in the world, that advances or assists policies that are at odds with our values.”
He also said the firm had not been working with ICE on operations to implement the controversial immigration policy. Instead, it was providing “management consulting services” for the agency’s “Enforcement and Removal Operations division.”
Sourced from New York Business Journal - written by Anthony Noto