DC wants Amazon to stop powering ICE

ICE is attacking DC and communities across the country. To do this ICE depends on our federal tax dollars as well as the services of hundreds of private companies.

One of those companies is Amazon. Amazon provides cloud computing and data integration services to ICE, which ICE relies on for its detentions and deportations.[1]

Amazon's founder and Executive Board Chair is far from politically neutral about this. Jeff Bezos has increasingly aligned himself with the Trump Administration and its agenda — including by exerting pressure at The Washington Post, which he owns.[2]

Unlike many defense contractors, Amazon also runs popular consumer brands which are a critical part of its business model. Those include Amazon.com, Whole Foods, Zappos, and Ring [3], as well as procurement contracts with local governments like DC. [4]

Amazon depends on our money, and that means we have power.

Add Your Name

DC residents don’t want these attacks on our community, and we don’t want to support any companies that make them possible.

Sign the petition to Amazon’s Board Chair Jeff Bezos to make it clear DC won’t cooperate with companies that profit off attacking us:

More ways Amazon hurts DC

Powering ICE is just one of the ways Amazon is hurting our local community here in DC:

• Increasing our Pepco bills — Starting in July 2025, residential Pepco customers will be charged 18% more in supply charges each month due to “increasing demand for electricity by new, high-usage regional data centers.”[5]

• Stealing money from DC-area workers — In February 2025 Amazon paid a $3.95 million settlement for misleading DC consumers “by assuring them that 100% of tips would go to Amazon Flex delivery drivers when in fact much of the tips were diverted to reduce Amazon’s labor costs and increase profits.”[6]

• Discriminating East of the River — A lawsuit filed by the DC Attorney General in December 2024 alleges that Amazon has secretly excluded ZIP codes east of the Anacostia River from Prime delivery while continuing to charge 48,000 Prime members living there the full subscription price.[7]

• Price fixing that hurts local DC businesses — The DC Attorney General is currently suing Amazon over “its illegal control of online retail prices that hikes prices for consumers, kills innovation, and hurts small businesses.” An appeals court decided in August 2024 that the case can move forward.[8]

• Donating to politicians attacking Home Rule — Amazon and the Bezos family spent nearly $17 million on the 2024 election cycle. Together, more than two-thirds of Amazon and the Bezos’ PAC total spending went to Republicans.[9]

In light of these actions, we are calling on Amazon to make the following changes to its business practices:

1. Terminate all contracts between Amazon or its subsidiaries and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Defense, and ICE.

2. Ensure existing data centers in Virginia stop driving up electricity prices for consumers. Stop building data centers if they raise rates or put our local communities at risk of missing our climate change goals.

3. Support DC-area workers by remaining neutral in any unionization campaigns at all Amazon entities including Whole Foods retail stores, Amazon warehouses, Amazon delivery drivers, and the company’s massive HQ2 complex in Arlington, VA.

4. Stop the intentional practice of undercutting local small businesses to eliminate competition, and then raising prices once local sellers have closed.

5. End corporate political donations to all members of the "Sedition Caucus," who voted to overturn the 2020 election.

We are also calling on Amazon’s Executive Board Chair Jeff Bezos make the following changes to his personal behavior:

1. Remove himself from all editorial control at The Washington Post.

2. End personal political donations to the Sedition Caucus of politicians who voted to overturn the 2020 election.

References

1 Hao, K. (2018, October 22). "Amazon is the invisible backbone of ICE’s immigration crackdown." MIT Technology Review. Available at https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/10/22/139639/amazon-is-the-invisible-backbone-behind-ices-immigration-crackdown/. And: Haskins, C. (2022, September 28). "Google and Amazon ignore employee protests and plow ahead with deals involving the US military, ICE, and CBP." Business Insider. Available at https://www.businessinsider.com/google-amazon-quietly-contract-dod-ice-cbp-employee-protests-2022-9
2 Lapowsky, I. (2025, April 30). "Everything We Know So Far About Jeff Bezos’s Relationship With Donald Trump." Vanity Fair. Available at https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/jeff-bezos-relationship-with-donald-trump. And: Malone, C. (2025, May 12). "Is Jeff Bezos Selling Out the Washington Post?" The New Yorker. Available at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/05/26/is-jeff-bezos-selling-out-the-washington-post
3 SMB Compass. (2022, June 15). "Everything Owned by Amazon." Available at https://www.smbcompass.com/everything-owned-by-amazon/
4 Mitchell, S. And LaVecchia, O. (2018, July 10). "Amazon’s Next Frontier: Your City’s Purchasing." Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Available at https://ilsr.org/articles/amazon-and-local-government-purchasing/
5 Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia. (2025, May 7). "Electricity Supply Rates for Pepco Customers to Increase Starting June 1, 2025." Available at https://dcpsc.org/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=9d309997-803c-42fb-a9aa-a6f67b4f39d5
6 Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia. (2025, February 7). "AG Schwalb Secures $3.95 Million from Amazon to Resolve Lawsuit Over Stolen Tips Intended for Delivery Worker." Available at https://oag.dc.gov/release/ag-schwalb-secures-395-million-amazon-resolve
7 Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia. (2024, December 4). "Attorney General Schwalb Sues Amazon for Secretly Excluding Ward 7 & 8 ZIP Codes from Prime Membership Delivery Benefits." Available at https://oag.dc.gov/release/attorney-general-schwalb-sues-amazon-secretly
8 Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia. (2021, December 7). "AG Racine Opening Statement About His Antitrust Lawsuit Against Amazon for Senate Finance Subcommittee Hearing." Available at https://oag.dc.gov/release/ag-racine-opening-statement-about-his-antitrust. And: DC Attorney General. (2024, August 22). X user @DCAttorneyGen. Available at https://x.com/DCAttorneyGen/status/1826650107493974306.
9 United for Respect. (n.d.). "An analysis of Amazon and Bezos activity in the current political cycle." Available at https://united4respect.org/reports/amazon-political-spending-2024/.