Lyft fights travel ban; Uber feels the heat

Lyft says it will give $ 1 million to ACLU

Uber’s actions during President Trump’s immigration ban Saturday stirred an impromptu wave of people deleting the ride- hailing app from their phones, while the company’s chief rival made a donation to fight the blockade.

Uber angered some users by temporarily canceling surge pricing for rides from New York’s JFK Airport, which taxi drivers were briefly boycotting to voice their opposition to Trump’s “inhumane and unconstitutional” action.

“Surge pricing has been turned off at # JFK Airport. This may result in longer wait times. Please be patient,” Uber’s New York City operation said Saturday night on Twitter.

Angry users viewed the move as a bid to undercut taxi drivers who voluntarily relinquished lucrative fares to join the protest against the temporary detention of foreigners who were denied entry to the U. S. after arriving on planes.

An Uber spokeswoman said she did not know how many people had deleted Uber from their phones. “We’re sorry for any confusion about our earlier tweet— it was not meant to break up any strike. We wanted people to know they could use Uber to get to and from JFK at normal prices, especially last night,” the company said Sunday in a statement.

Hours after the controversy popped, fierce rival Lyft announced it would donate $ 1 million to the American Civil Liberties Union, which is battling Trump’s ban on travelers from certain primarily- Muslim countries. “Banning people of a particular faith or creed, race or identity, sexuality or ethnicity, from entering the U. S. is antithetical to both Lyft’s and our nation’s core values,” cofounders John Zimmer and Logan Green said in a blog post.

2014 PHOTO BY WILL OLIVER, EPA Uber, led by Travis Kalanick, upset users at a boycott Saturday at JFK Airport.