'Congress needs to act now' — tech CEOs vow to help Dreamers and oppose end to DACA

Tim Cook

Tech leaders took to Twitter on Tuesday to stand up for the so-called Dreamers and against the Trump administration after the latter announced it would officially end a program that protect such immigrants from deportation.

Executives from Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Facebook and Apple tweeted their support for Dreamers, echoing statements made after last week's news that Trump was planning to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft President Brad Smith went one step further, promising to take action in defense of Dreamers, which is the nickname for the group of some 800,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children and who are protected under DACA.

"If Congress fails to act, our company will exercise its legal rights properly to help protect our employees," Smith wrote in a post on Microsoft's official blog. Noting that Microsoft has 39 employees who are protected under the program, he added, "If the government seeks to deport any one of them, we will provide and pay for their legal counsel."

Like Smith, Cook urged Congress to intervene to protect Dreamers.

"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 wrote in an email to employees.

Here are some of the other statements concerning DACA that tech executives made on Twitter:

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

DACA=LOVE. CEOs ❤️ DACA! http://pic.twitter.com/AWASUeJoOD
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) September 5, 2017

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

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

Saddened by the decision to turn against our friends, neighbors & coworkers. Congress must do the right thing: protect Dreamers. #DefendDACA
— Susan Wojcicki (@SusanWojcicki) September 5, 2017

250 of my Apple coworkers are #Dreamers. I stand with them. They deserve our respect as equals and a solution rooted in American values.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) September 3, 2017

Last week, as news began to leak that the Trump administration was planning to end DACA, tech executives spoke out to try to dissuade the president and spur Congress to protect the Dreamers. Smith, for example, wrote a post urging Congress to create new legislation that would protect such immigrants who are already benefitting from the program.

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