Tech industry blasts Trump ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy

By Mark Sullivan

The New York Times is out with a piece late Tuesday that illustrates the tech industry’s vocal criticism of the Trump administration’s current “zero tolerance” immigration policy. That policy requires that all undocumented people crossing into the U.S. be prosecuted as criminals. If they come in with children, the children are taken away. Here are the main points from the NYT:

  • Microsoft employees posted a letter on an internal message board calling for the company to stop doing business with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Microsoft management released a letter Monday night saying it did not believe ICE was using its software for the purpose of separating kids from parents.
  • Employees at Google, Apple, and Facebook have in the past few days circulated memos asking their coworkers to donate to nonprofit groups supporting immigrant families.
  • In separate Facebook posts Tuesday Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg supported the donation drive at Facebook, and criticized the administration’s immigration policy. Sandberg wrote that she found the sound recordings of the immigrant children to be “unbearable.”
  • Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Irish Times he found the zero tolerance policy “heartbreaking.”
  • On Sunday, Microsoft president Brad Smith posted on LinkedIn: “When we keep children with their parents, we not only follow in the footsteps of one of the world’s oldest and most important humanitarian traditions, we help build a stronger country.”
  • And various other tech leaders tweeted out their criticism of the zero tolerance policy:

 
 

 

Fast Company , Read Full Story

(6)