The Trump administration has today ordered an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or the DACA. No new registrations will be accepted into the Obama-established program and the current members — 800,000 individuals who were brought into the U.S. as young children — will lose their legal protections on March 2018.
Tech Leaders Band Together
American business leaders in the tech industry, however, are strongly opposed to the move.
“Some of the most vocal supporters of DACA are in the tech industry,” the New York Times reported yesterday. “On Saturday, Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, updated the profile picture on his Facebook page to say, ‘I Support DACA.’ The chief executive of Apple, Timothy D. Cook, proclaimed on Twitter that “250 of my Apple coworkers are #Dreamers. I stand with them.'”
Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, Consumer Technology Association (CTA), also offering a statement regarding the Trump administration’s announcement to end the DACA program.
“Preserving DACA is the right thing to do,” Shapiro states. “It also gives Congress an impetus to pass a humane immigration law that attracts and enables the world’s best and brightest to innovate, build companies, create jobs and drive economic growth in the United States. Dreamers are an important part of this equation.
[…] The time has come for a bipartisan solution that fixes our broken immigration system, defines a pathway for dreamers to earn a place in our society and addresses our nation’s labor shortage. Inaction is not a winning immigration strategy.”
Hundreds of CEOs Sign Open Letter
Several hundred CEOs, in fact, have signed on open letter on the issue, calling for Trump to reconsider while highlighting the economic benefits of the program:
“All DACA recipients grew up in America, registered with our government, submitted to extensive background checks, and are diligently giving back to our communities and paying income taxes,” the letter notes. “More than 97 percent are in school or in the workforce, 5 percent started their own business, 65 percent have purchased a vehicle, and 16 percent have purchased their first home. At least 72 percent of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies count DACA recipients among their employees.”
Those who have signed, Engadget reports, include Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Warren Buffett, as well as representatives from Airbnb, Netflix, eBay, Dropbox, LinkedIn, and Tumblr.
Tech leaders’ lobbying attempts will have to continue increasing: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers may officially use DACA data in order to actively deport immigrant children once the protections are lifted, a memo from the Department of Homeland Security has confirmed.
Read more about tech and politics (if you dare) here at TechCo