Apple's Tim Cook and More Than 100 CEOs Urge Congress to Protect Dreamers

[MacRumors]

Apple's Tim Cook on Wednesday joined over 100 other CEOs in urging the U.S. Congress to pass a bill to protect young immigrants before the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program expires. For those unfamiliar with the program, DACA gives about 800,000 illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. at age 16 or younger work permits and protection from deportation by two-year deferral. Many of those protected by DACA have been in the United States for most of their lives.

In an open letter to House and Senate leaders, the group called on lawmakers to introduce legislation supporting so-called Dreamers by Friday, which is the deadline for Congress to pass a bill for government funding to avert a shutdown. The DACA program actually expires on March 5, but the CEO signatories say the government needs time to implement a new program before that deadline.

"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," the letter reads. "The imminent termination of the DACA program is creating an impending crisis for workforces across the country."

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft president Brad Smith, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam were additional signatories of the letter, which cited a CATO Institute study that found ending the DACA program could cause a $215 billion decline in the 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 group wrote. "While delay or inaction will cause significant negative impact to businesses, hundreds of thousands of deserving young people across the country are counting on you to work in a bipartisan way to pass permanent legislative protection for Dreamers without further delay."

Tim Cook has been consistent in his support for a legislative solution to protect those affected by the end of the DACA program. Following U.S. President Donald Trump's September announcement that DACA would be phased out over six months, Cook sent an email to employees saying Apple would try to help Congress find a solution and would be working with impacted Apple employees to provide support, including access to immigration experts. Apple employs 250 "Dreamers", Cook previously revealed in a tweet.

In December, Cook teamed up with Koch Industries CEO Charles Koch to write an opinion piece in The Washington Post about DACA, asking Congress to work quickly to come up with a solution before the end of the year. That never happened, and the government's stance on the issue now appears to be mired in confusion.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in California issued a nationwide injunction ordering the Trump administration to maintain the DACA program on a nationwide basis while legal challenges to the president's decision go forward.

In another development this week, concerns grew among hardliners after Trump met with lawmakers during a freewheeling televised session, in which he signaled he was open to compromise and seemed to express support for a number of legislative options to legalize Dreamers.

Indeed, the president appeared to suggest that the details of a legislative solution didn't matter to him, telling congressional leaders that he would approve whatever they sent him. "I will be signing it," Trump said towards the end of the meeting. "I'm not going to say, 'Oh, gee, I want this or I want that.' I'll be signing it."

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's Tim Cook and More Than 100 CEOs Urge Congress to Protect Dreamers

 

[s2mikey]

Of course they support them - thats because they dont actually have to "support" them aka free stuff since Tim and the rich posse arent affected by draconian taxes that have to pay for these people and their free ride. Gimme a break.

 

[Lesser Evets]

Cheap labor is always desirable.

And it's fun for the controllers to bash the law-abiding while causing chaos through the lawless. ***** and giggles for the 1% of the 1%.

 

[Aluminum213]

And we the people urge the richest company in the world to actually pay its taxes

 

[Rogifan]

And we the people urge the richest company in the world to actually pay its taxes

Which it does. Of course you know that.

 

[827538]

So happy to speak up on left wing virtue signalling issues yet where was his support of net neutrality?

How about supporting the American people first Tim? Especially on something far more in tune with what your company actually does.

Illegal immigration is a crime and one that causes real damage.

 

[RichardMZhlubb]

Of course they support them - thats because they dont actually have to "support" them aka free stuff since Tim and the rich posse arent affected by draconian taxes that have to pay for these people and their free ride. Gimme a break.

Immigrants eligible for DACA pay over $2 billion a year in taxes but, hey, I guess you would rather just spread more unsubstantiated lies about them to make a cheap point instead, right?

https://itep.org/state-local-tax-contributions-of-young-undocumented-immigrants/

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

At least this issue is in the proper venue: Congress.

For those on the Left, your side gets a representative say in the decision, and for those on the Right, the same. For those that believe in the Constitution, at least this follows the process found in Article I.

 

[e-coli]

The comments so far are gross and ignorant. How disappointing. It seems people truly have no decency anymore.

 

[sdz]

Apple you disgust me.

 

[e-coli]

So happy to speak up on left wing virtue signalling issues yet where was his support of net neutrality?

How about supporting the American people first Tim? Especially on something far more in tune with what your company actually does.

Illegal immigration is a crime and one that causes real damage.

A simple Google search would have answered your question. But I suspect you were more interested in bashing immigrants than making an intellectually honest point.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.re...m-cook-net-neutrality-trump-chairman-ajit-pai

 

[Xgm541]

And we the people urge the richest company in the world to actually pay its taxes

can you show me where apple was found guilty for not paying appropriate taxes in the US?

 

[PJivan]

Apple you disgust me.

Bavaria is were the mess started and that was disgusting...you guys should lay low for another 300 years when it comes to these topics...

 

[Xgm541]

A simple Google search would have answered your question. But I suspect you were more interested in bashing immigrants than making an intellectually honest point.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.re...m-cook-net-neutrality-trump-chairman-ajit-pai

Thanks for this. It'd be too hard to actually put into Google. Also not to forget that Apple doesn't benefit one bit from getting rid of net neutrality as It is not a last point consumer data provider. Much easier to just spew nonsense.

 

[smokesletsgo]

The comments so far are gross and ignorant. How disappointing. It seems people truly have no decency anymore.

Or you're just naive. The "left" is so fake (not even left) it's disgusting. All they care about are slaves, who else will work their asses off for your stupid iPhones. Poor people buy into the scam much more easily and can be controlled effortlessly. Instead of caring about true people's freedom which means building your OWN country from shtholes that they are, they want these people locked in invisible chains working for them.

 

[TallManNY]

And we the people urge the richest company in the world to actually pay its taxes

We the people have elected officials which have radically decreased the tax burden on corporations. The good news is that it won't cost as much in taxes to bring that overseas wealth back to the U.S. and it reduces the incentive for companies to play games to achieve tax avoidance. The bad news is that the only likely result of that with Apple is that dividends will be increased which will largely be paid to the wealthy (who own large percentages of the stock market) and partly be paid to foreign investors (which I believe own about 1/4 or 1/3 of the U.S. stock market).

But personally I'm an Apple investor and I'm hoping for some fat dividend checks in 2019 because of these tax changes.

 

[djcerla]

"I will be signing it," Trump said towards the end of the meeting. "I'm not going to say, 'Oh, gee, I want this or I want that.' I'll be signing it."

And this is the kind of “leader” that supports those opinions.

 

[PJivan]

Illegal immigration is a crime and one that causes real damage.

And what has illegal immigration has to do with the topic at all....

We are not talking of the atlantic slave trade here...now, that did some damage, and not to america...these are paid individual who pay taxes, rent, foods and so on.

 

[TMRJIJ]

So happy to speak up on left wing virtue signalling issues yet where was his support of net neutrality?

How about supporting the American people first Tim? Especially on something far more in tune with what your company actually does.

Illegal immigration is a crime and one that causes real damage.

1. Apple has defended Net Neutrality
2. Children should not be held responsible for what their parents did. Especially when they are paying taxes and supporting the country better than some actual Americans.

 

[supercoolmanchu]

Yeah you're right. It's not the complexity of ios or osx. It can't be poor direction from any of the vice presidents. It can't be poor quality control. It's those damn immigrants.

/s

How does illegal immigration fix bugs with OS X permissions?

How does illegal immigration distract the CEO in charge of fixing bugs with OS X permissions?

 

[sterlingindigo]

Stick to batteries please. And use your influence with your new boss, the Chinese govt.

 

[GuruZac]

And what has illegal immigration has to do with the topic at all....

We are not talking of the atlantic slave trade here...now, that did some damage, and not to america...these are paid individual who pay taxes, rent, foods and so on.

Are you kidding? Dreamers have parents who came here, prepare yourself, illegally.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Immigrants eligible for DACA pay over $2 billion a year in taxes but, hey, I guess you would rather just spread more unsubstantiated lies about them to make a cheap point instead, right?

https://itep.org/state-local-tax-contributions-of-young-undocumented-immigrants/

And do we know how much their families cost the taxpayers in benefits and goodies when they arrived?

No, they can leave. And blame their parents for all of it.

There needs to be a disincentive to illegal immigration. Forgiving and forgetting is not going to fix this issue.

 

[JustMartin]

Are you kidding? Dreamers have parents who came here, prepare yourself, illegally.

So, are you saying that all children of illegal immigrants should be deported, even the ones who were born in the US? That's what it sounds like. What about grand-children of illegal immigrants, are you counting them as well?

 

[rizzo41999]

All for equal opportunity but I'd like to see Apple make investments in people domestically from impoverished areas. Plenty of talented people here in the US who just need a chance...