Tell Niraj Shah, CEO of Wayfair, to stop profiting off migrant children and concentration camps.

By now you’ve seen the headlines: the United States government and its contractors are abusing hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking asylum. Six children have died since September 2018 as a result of neglect and overcrowded, inhumane facilities. [1] Human rights violations and atrocities are being committed at the Southern border.

Ecommerce retailer Wayfair approved a $200,000 order from BCFS, a contractor managing concentration camps at the Southern border. The order was for bedroom furniture destined for a camp in Carrizo Springs, TX that will hold 3,000 migrant children seeking asylum in the U.S. The company’s employees are leading the way, demanding that CEO Niraj Shah does not enable, support, or profit from the suffering of people seeking asylum and the concentration camps imprisoning them.

We stand with Wayfair employees walking out over this exploitation for profit.

Wayfair employees are asking for company leadership to own up to their participation in this mass cruelty. In their letter to leadership, Wayfair employees wrote, “we believe selling these or any products to BCFS and similar contractors we are enabling this violation and are complicit in furthering the inhumane actions of our government.”  

In response to the employee letter, CEO Niraj Shah wrote that as a retailer they would fulfill orders by any customer who is acting within the laws of the country within which Wayfair operates. [2] But we know that concentration camps for Japanese Americans during WWII were considered legal and imperative. The U.S. used to tear Native American children from their families and force them into “boarding schools” to assimilate. Chattel enslavement was legal on this continent for hundreds of years. Laws are not inherently moral, fair, or good. Laws are a reflection of the society in which they were passed.

Shah, an Indian American, seems to have conveniently forgotten about this history in the name of profit for his company. As Asian Americans, co-conspirators, and allies we stand with the employees of Wayfair and their walkout on June 26th. As potential Wayfair customers, we refuse to purchase anything from Wayfair until company leadership complies with employee demands:

• $86,000 in profit from the BCFS order be donated to RAICES, a non-profit that provides free and low-cost legal services to immigrants in Texas.

• Cease all current and future business with BCFS and any other contractors participating in the operation of migrant concentration camps and to establish a code of ethics for sales.

Tell CEO Niraj Shah and Wayfair leadership to stop exploiting asylum seekers and profiting from the concentration camps caging them.

[1] https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-migrant-child-border-deaths-20190524-story.html