Tech leaders urge Trump to preserve DACA

Dozens of tech industry leaders have signed a letter expressing concern about reports that President Trump is considering ending a program that protected from deportation more than 750,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

The open letter, released Thursday by tech industry advocacy group FWD.us, includes heavyweights such as Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook, Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos, Google Inc.’s Sundar Pichai and Snap Inc.’s Evan Spiegel among its signatories.

Executives from companies such as Lyft, Uber, Airbnb, Dropbox, Microsoft and General Motors also signed on.

The letter calls on Trump to continue the Obama-era federal program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and asks Congress to pass legislation that would allow the young people affected to remain in the U.S. permanently.

It says they “are vital to the future of our companies and our economy. With them, we grow and create jobs. They are part of why we will continue to have a global competitive advantage.”

In a blog post Thursday, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company was “deeply concerned” about reports of changes to DACA. Of its more than 73,000 employees in the United States, 27 are DACA beneficiaries.

“Each of them is actively participating in our collective mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more,” Smith wrote.

During his campaign, Trump said he would end the program. But after taking office, he has indicated he is sympathetic to the plight of young immigrants who did not enter the country under their own volition.