Apple CEO Tim Cook Joins Coalition Renewing Push for Immigration Reform

[MacRumors]

Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and others have signed a new letter urging Congress to pass bipartisan legislation that would enable more than 700,000 immigrants to legally work and live in the United States (via CNBC).

The coalition's letter to help "Dreamers" will be featured in a full-page ad in The New York Times today. The term Dreamers refers to individuals who were brought to the United States at a young age when their parents or guardians illegally immigrated into the country. Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, these people are protected and can gain legal work status in the United States.

"With the re-opening of the federal government and the presumptive restart of immigration and border security negotiations, now is the time for Congress to pass a law to provide Dreamers the certainty they need. These are our friends, neighbors, and coworkers, and they should not have to wait for court cases to be decided to determine their fate when Congress can act now," they wrote in the letter.

"We have seen time and again that the overwhelming majority of Americans of all political backgrounds agree that we should protect Dreamers from deportation," the letter said. "American employers and hundreds of thousands of Dreamers are counting on you to pass bipartisan, permanent legislative protection for Dreamers without further delay."

Apple and Tim Cook have been supporting DACA for years, and Cook began writing letters in support of the Dreamers in 2017, after President Donald Trump announced his original plan to phase out DACA over the course of six months. At the time, Cook said that 250 Apple employees are Dreamers: "I stand with them. They deserve our respect as equals and a solution rooted in American values."

NEW TODAY - 100 CEOs representing every sector of the economy sign letter that is full-page ad in @nytimes calling for permanent protections for Dreamers. Signatories include CEOs of GM, Coca Cola, Apple, Amazon, Walmart, FB, US Chamber, Marriott, Blackstone, NAM, Google & more. pic.twitter.com/3SXb7UIpYf - Todd Schulte (@TheToddSchulte) February 11, 2019

In early 2018, Cook joined more than 100 CEOs in a letter urging Congress to protect DACA. The cause has been renewed this week as the United States government heads into another potential shutdown this Friday.

Apple has spent increasing amounts of money lobbying the Trump Administration, in 2018 alone spending $6.6 million and in 2017 spending $7.1 million. Apple's lobbying increased significantly after Trump took office, with the company spending more than ever before to influence the current government on issues such as privacy, education, climate change, trade, immigration, tax reform, and patent reform.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple CEO Tim Cook Joins Coalition Renewing Push for Immigration Reform

 

[oliversl]

Looks like a broad coalition

 

[Pepe4life]

Tim Cook spends more time pushing his political views than he does on apple products. Sad!

 

[Surfer13134]

Tim needs to focus on his products than dealing with politics and worrying about what Trump is doing!

 

[Superhappytree]

Tim Cook stories are boring. All politics and little else.

 

[Macintoshrumors]

“Americans are dreamers too” -DJT

CEOs and Hollywood need to let get off their hypocritical virtue signaling horse and either run for Congress to actually make chances or shut the funk up and let congress do its thing.

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

I would prefer if corporations stayed out of politics. Behind this veil of empathy, it's in their interest that they support policy that keeps wages low. The actual politics of the dreamers themselves is awkward to say the least. Their parents skated the law, but being a minor they would have had no idea whats going on.
Break up families, or let them stay and set a precedent, that if you break the law long enough, you will win. Thats a great message to send across the world if you want to control your immigration levels. But sending "back" people who may have only been month old babies when they came to the USA, seems pretty heartless. Good luck resolving that one America.

 

[jhwalker]

Great! To enroll in the DACA system at all, these folks have to PROVE they've never been convicted of a crime, be gainfully employed and contributing to our system, and pay a periodic fee for processing (among other requirements).

There is no logical reason to deport them to a foreign country.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Throw in the wall and I'm on board with this.

 

[Aluminum213]

That’s exactly what Americans need, more illegals taking the few jobs that are available

And McDonald’s isn’t considered a viable job to support yourself

 

[centauratlas]

Throw in the wall and I'm on board with this.

Bingo. But the odds of that happening seem to be dropping by the minute. In short: control the borders to stop this from happening again, and be compassionate to people already here since they were young.

 

[lkrupp]

The motive of this coalition is simple. Rather than expend time, effort, and money on improving the education of citizens to fill the high tech jobs they have they’d rather import non citizens who they can pay less and get more work out of instead. It’s capitalism at its best. No altruism here, no social justice, just shear greed for profit.

 

[ericgtr12]

Throw in the wall and I'm on board with this.

But most are not.

NYT
The wall has consistently been unpopular, with voters opposed by around a 20-point margin over months of national surveys. That makes it even less popular than the president himself.

He campaigned on Mexico paying for the wall, not American tax payers. It's a losing proposition for him no matter how you look at it.

 

[wigby]

Tim Cook stories are boring. All politics and little else.

The more clicks and comments, the more of these stories we will see, thanks in part to complainers just like you.

 

[WaxedJacket]

Who do I have to lobby to get Apple reform?

 

[Bornee35]

He just wants more US iPhone sales.

 

[Adam Warlock]

If only Cook signed a letter addressed to his VPs in support of fewer cost-cutting compromises in his company's products he'd get a far better reaction to his non-Apple initiatives here.

 

[dspdoc]

Tim Cook spends more time pushing his political views than he does on apple products. Sad!

I was just getting ready to say the same thing. Leave politics alone and focus on your computers, bean counter.

 

[thadoggfather]

Tim Cook is an open borders globalist. How long will people be in denial of this for?

 

[wigby]

“Americans are dreamers too” -DJT

CEOs and Hollywood need to let get off their hypocritical virtue signaling horse and either run for Congress to actually make chances or shut the funk up and let congress do its thing.

There is no virtue signaling going on. This is an exchange of money for votes in Congress. Everyone is playing their roles in a system that needs reform.
[doublepost=1549900320][/doublepost]

Tim Cook is an open borders globalist. How long will people be in denial of this for?

So it Trump when it benefits his own business too.

 

[WannaGoMac]

Throw in the wall and I'm on board with this.

Bingo. But the odds of that happening seem to be dropping by the minute. In short: control the borders to stop this from happening again, and be compassionate to people already here since they were young.

Serious question. Could you please help me understand why you believe a physical wall would actually stop much illegal immigration? (ps. this is meant to be a civil, calm, discussion, and not poking at one side or another being bad).

All studies report that a) vast number of illegals are not from sneaking across the Mexico border but rather overstaying their visitor visa b) Physical wall can be bypassed by digging tunnels, a large ladder, etc. c) The cost and resources to build one along the entire wall are massive. This clip from John Oliver summarizes a lot of this discussion (albeit a bit too comical but I didnt have time to start pulling up the assessments from the more serious news sites)

 

[calzon65]

Tim cook … the politician, champion of human rights, advocate of gay/transgender rights, environmental activist … is he still the CEO of Apple?

 

[DakotaGuy]

Time for him to retire as CEO of Apple and become a politician. Apple needs a tech visionary not a politician to be CEO.

 

[BB8]

“Americans are dreamers too” -DJT

CEOs and Hollywood need to let get off their hypocritical virtue signaling horse and either run for Congress to actually make chances or shut the funk up and let congress do its thing.

Congress hasn't done it's thing. That's the point. A bunch of racists have held up immigration reform for years.

 

[FrenchRoasted]

Tim is a supply chain guy and labor is just another expense in that chain. Tim and Apple have a long history of driving down input costs to increase their bottom line, this is no different. Note, all companies do this in order to survive.