Industry fallout
Tech firms and other industry executives call on Congress to save DACA
NEW YORK — Technology companies and executives of other industries criticized the Trump administration for its plan to undo protections for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants and called on Congress to help them.
President Donald Trump said he will dismantle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, an Obamaera initiative that allowed young people who were brought into the U.S. illegally as children to work legally in the U.S., shielding them from deportation. The administration says Congress has six months to come up with a fix.
Tech companies have pushed back against efforts to curb immigration, which they see as vital to their industry. Immigrants make up about one-quarter of the U.S. technology and science workforce.
On Tuesday, Microsoft President Brad Smith, said in a blog post that Congress should “move quickly with new legislation to protect these 800,000 Dreamers,” using a popular term for the young immigrants. Notably, Smith explicitly urged that immigration legislation take precedence over tax reform, another big legislative priority for corporate America.
Microsoft will also help affected employees with attorneys, amicus briefs and, when appropriate, direct legal intervention. “If Dreamers who are our employees are in court, we will be by their side,” Smith wrote.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post that it is “particularly cruel to offer young people the American Dream, encourage them to come out of the shadows and trust our government, and then punish them for it.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a note to employees that he was “deeply dismayed that 800,000 Americans — including more than 250 of our Apple co-workers — may soon find themselves cast out of the only country they’ve ever called home.” He said Apple will work with Congress on legislation “that provides permanent protections for all the Dreamers in our country” and that the company will support employees in need.
Uber’s chief technology officer, Thuan Pham, who came to the U.S. as a refugee from Vietnam, wrote in an online post that the ride-hailing company will “stand by immigrants who want nothing more than to contribute to our country and pursue the American Dream.”
They were joined by top brass at Google, Disney, IBM, Goldman Sachs and others.
And the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said undoing the protections and deporting the young immigrants was “contrary to fundamental American principles and the best interests of our country.”