They have a deadline that expires in six months. Tax reform
can wait.''
Smith also said if the government moves to deport DREAMers
who are Microsoft employees, ``it's going to have to go
through us to get that person.''
This is the second time in a week that Smith has spoken
out. Last Thursday, Smith and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
both issued statements calling on the administration to
preserve DACA. Nadella, a first-generation immigrant from
India, struck a personal note: ``I am a product of two
uniquely American attributes: the ingenuity of American
technology reaching me where I was growing up, fueling my
dreams, and the enlightened immigration policy that allowed
me to pursue my dreams.''
Meanwhile, in a letter to employees this morning, Apple CEO
Tim Cook said more than 250 Apple workers are affected by the
DACA repeal and that he has been hearing from them all
weekend.
``I want to assure you that Apple will work with members of
Congress from both parties to advocate for a legislative
solution that provides permanent protections for all the
Dreamers in our country,'' Cook said. Dozens of CEOs including Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Reed
Hastings from Netflix, Randall Stephenson from AT&T and Tim
Sloan of Wells Fargo wrote a letter addressed to the
president asking him to preserve the program. The leaders argued that all DACA recipients grew up in
America and give back to the community and pay income taxes. They said: ``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.''
In a public post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said about
Trump's announcement: ``This is a sad day for our country''
and that he and his immigration advocacy vehicle at Fwd.US
will be ``doing even more in the weeks ahead to make sure
Dreamers have the protections they deserve.''
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google (an arm of Alphabet), did
not make quite the same commitment on Twitter. But he took a
moral stand, writing, ``Dreamers are our neighbors, our
friends and our co-workers. This is their home.
Keywords matched
immigration immigrant DACA