Employees at Deloitte are calling for the firm to end its consulting for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, circulating a petition saying they have “moral objections” to the work. Their bid comes on the heels of a decision by a competitor, McKinsey & Company, to sever ties with the immigration agency after employees raised questions about the work.

Deloitte employees have appealed to the company’s chief executive, Cathy Engelbert, to end the company’s contracts with both ICE and United States Customs and Border Protection, and to take a public stance against the Trump administration policy that resulted in migrant children being separated from their parents, according to the petition and screenshots of internal emails seen by The New York Times. Deloitte said its work had played no role in the separation of migrant families.

The stands taken by Deloitte and McKinsey workers underscore the rise of employee activism as a potent voice of protest against Trump administration policies. Last month Google, responding to employee anger over the company’s work with the Pentagon on artificial intelligence, issued new rules barring the company from using A.I. technology for weapons or for surveillance that violates human rights.

Image Cathy Engelbert, Deloitte’s chief executive, told employees that she appreciated their voicing concerns to her. The firm has not indicated any plans to end its work with ICE. Credit... Chris Goodney/Bloomberg, via Getty Images

The petition, along with an employee email to Ms. Engelbert on Tuesday, pointed to a Times article reporting that McKinsey, a rival consultancy, had ended its work with ICE. That article, citing federal contracting records, said that Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers Public Sector L.L.P. and Booz Allen Hamilton also did work with the agency. As of Thursday afternoon, more than 750 names had been added to the petition, records show.