Tim Cook joined more than 100 prominent CEOs who signed an open letter urging Congress to pass legislation to protect young immigrants threatened by the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Branding the situation a “crisis,” the letter asks lawmakers to pass a bill supporting “Dreamers”
“We write to urge Congress to act immediately and pass a permanent bipartisan legislative solution to enable Dreamers who are currently living, working, and contributing to our communities to continue doing so,” reads the letter, which was signed by Cook and other prominent tech executives including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft President Brad Smith and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. “The imminent termination of the DACA program is creating an impending crisis for workforces across the country.”
The DACA program is set to expire on March 5, although the executives signing the letter say the government needs more time to implement a new program before the deadline. The letter also cites a CATO Institute study suggesting that ending the DACA program could result in a $215 billion decline in U.S. gross domestic product.
“In addition to causing a tremendous upheaval in the lives of DACA employees, failure to act in time will lead to businesses losing valuable talent, cause disruptions in the workforce, and will result in significant costs,” the letter notes.
Apple’s support of the ‘Dreamers’
This isn’t the first time Apple has loaned its name to a legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s attempts to end DACA.
In a previous court filing in support of Dreamers, the company noted, “Apple and its customers have benefitted greatly from their intelligence, ambition, creativity, resilience, and hard work. These employees are important contributors to Apple’s unique culture. That unique culture enables employees throughout Apple to do the best work of their lives and excel at creating the most innovative products and providing the very best customer service.”
In September, Cook also joined the CEOs of Microsoft, Amazon, HP, Google and other companies in signing a letter from immigration reform group FWD.us. The letter urged Trump to keep in place legal protections under the DACA act. It argued that young immigrants living in the United States illegally who were brought there as children are a vital part of the economy, and “with them, we grow and create jobs.”
Source: The Hill
