Microsoft President Brad Smith and
Apple CEO Tim Cook are among the American business leaders speaking
out against President Donald Trump's decision to rescind DACA.
The Deferred Action on Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) program, which former President Barack Obama
implemented in 2012, allowed undocumented immigrants brought to the
United Stares by their families as children to remain here.
Trump on Tuesday announced that he
would rescind DACA after a six month delay to allow Congress time to
act on the issue.
“There is nothing that we will be
pushing on more strongly for Congress to act on,” Smith told NPR.
“We put a stake in the ground. We care about a tax reform bill. The
entire business community cares about a tax reform. And yet it is
very clear today a tax reform bill needs to be set aside until the
DREAMers are taken care of. They have a deadline that expires in six
months. Tax reform can wait.”
He added that Microsoft would protect
DREAMers who are Microsoft employees.
“[The government is] going to have to
go through us to get that person,” he said.
Cook said in a letter to employees that
more than 250 Apple workers are receiving DACA benefits.
“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,” said Cook.
Other CEOs speaking out include Jeff
Bezos from Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook, Reed Hastings from
Netflix, Sundar Pichai from Google, and Tim Sloan from Wells Fargo.
(Related: Obama
on Trump's decision to rescind DACA.)