Jobless Metro Worker Arrested by Refugees

Old meter The employee who was fired during the May 20 firing is said to have been arrested US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent days, according to communications within the company seen by WIRED.

A current employee posted about the incident on an internal page Trim A message board for this week’s incoming and outgoing topics. The original post was marked as “urgent” and featured two Meta administrators who focused on issues of immigration and the threat of labor, in an attempt to expand the issue to them.

The employee’s current position is unknown.

Meta spokesman Dave Arnold declined to comment for the report. Representatives from ICE are US Department of Homeland Security He did not comment in time for publication. It is unclear whether the employee was detained by ICE, Customs and Border Protection, or another agency.

Internal documents reviewed by WIRED show employees believe the former partner is being held in El Paso, Texas, where the main US-Mexico border is located. On the other side is Ciudad Juárez, home to the main US embassy in the region and the destination for visa processing.

Many foreign workers at US technology companies work on H-1B visas, which allow companies to hire highly skilled foreign workers. These visas are tied to employers. Workers who find a new job must change their immigration documents, sometimes by intentionally leaving and re-entering the country.

WIRED was unable to confirm the employee’s nationality or the type of US visa he may have traveled on.

The incident is a rare public example of a tech worker being held in jail since President Donald Trump launched a nationwide crackdown early last year, sparking widespread criticism.

In May, Meta cut about 10 percent of its workforceor about 8,000 people, as part of its ongoing efforts to streamline the company’s operations and reduce its investment in AI infrastructure. Many workers with visas were among those left behind, according to workers familiar with the departure.

A small group of Meta workers has asked the company to do more to protect migrant workers and contractors who are at risk of arrest or deportation ICEincluding helping to pay legal fees and allowing workers to avoid offices on days they fear immigration officials from the area. In the midst of what some workers describe as a lack of support from Meta, workers have begun to organize financial aid and support for their colleagues in the US who are dealing with issues of immigration.

Under the Trump administration, immigration officials have been arresting thousands of people a month, with nearly 60,000 people in detention since early April, according to researchers. Technical offices have never been the target of threats. But in January, immigration officials arrested two workers who were on their way to the construction site of the Meta data center.