Immigration
Top Tech CEOs Speak Out Against DACA Repeal
People attend a rally protesting against Donald Trump's decision to end the DACA program in front of the White House in Washington on Sept. 5, 2017.
Photo Credit: IANS
Apple, Google and Microsoft and other leading tech firms have slammed Trump's decision to scrap DACA.
Global tech giants, including Google, Apple and Microsoft, have spoken up against Donald Trump’s recent decision to rescind the DACA program, and pledged to stand by their employees.
Trump’s recent decision to scrap the Deferred Action for Children Arrival (DACA) program initiated by Barack Obama-led government is likely to affect 8,00,000 migrant workers, including about 20,000 Indians. DACA granted work permits to immigrants who arrived illegally as children.
Trump’s ruling has stirred up workers in the tech sector in the US, and has been criticized by some of the most influential tech brands.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg went live with a 45-minute video, asking the government to revoke its decision on DACA. In the live video from his Palo Alto home, Zuckerberg also said that offering the American dream to people, and then taking it away and punishing them for trusting the government is one of the most troubling things he has seen in a long time in the country. He later joined Meg Whitman of HP, and Tim Cook and Jack Dorsey from Twitter, along with other tech leaders, and wrote an open letter to Trump.
The other signatories of the letter included Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, HP CEO Dion Weisler, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and PayPal CEO Dan Schulman.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also extended his support for the Dreamers. He tweeted: “Dreamers make our country & communities stronger. We stand for diversity and economic opportunity for everyone. Legislation to protect 800,000 #Dreamers is an economic & humanitarian imperative. Congress needs to act quickly.”
Dreamers make our country & communities stronger. We stand for diversity and economic opportunity for everyone. https://t.co/gRCr8VWwcN
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) September 5, 2017
Brad Smith, the president and chief legal officer at Microsoft, said, “If Congress fails to act, our company will exercise its legal rights properly to help protect our employees.” He added that Microsoft is ready to provide all assistance and pay for the legal counselling expenses in case the government issues any deporting notice to Microsoft employees.
The sentiment was shared by IBM, which said it stands by “our IBM Dreamers”, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who also tweeted in support of Dreamers, calling them US’ neighbors, friends and co-workers, and appealing to the Congress to defend the DACA program.
Dreamers are our neighbors, our friends and our co-workers. This is their home. Congress needs to act now to #DefendDACA. #WithDreamers
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) September 5, 2017
Top honchos from Uber, Lyft and Tesla, as well as GM CEO Mary Barra joined the call against Trump’s move. Saying he was heart-broken over the issue, Thuan Pham, Uber’s chief technology officer, recalled how he had escaped from Vietnam on a boat. Pham said 11 people protected by DACA were working at Uber. The company’s new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, also tweeted:
It’s against our values to turn our backs on #DREAMers. Everyone deserves a chance to work, study and contribute – the #AmericanDream!
— dara khosrowshahi (@dkhos) September 5, 2017
