Microsoft, Uber, Apple, Google: How the tech world responded to Trump's immigration ban
SAN FRANCISCO — President Trump's order banning immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. began hitting the tech industry Saturday, with Google's CEO leading a growing list of tech executives condemning the ban.
The CEOs of Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Uber, Airbnb and Tesla Motors denounced with the policy, which would affect their own employees working here legally, as well as their competitive quest for talent.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky went a step further, offering free housing to anyone displaced by the ban.
Several tech leaders expressed concern that the ban could wreak havoc on their businesses.
"Trump's actions are hurting Netflix employees around the world, and are so un-American it pains us all," Netflix CEO and founder Reed Hastings said in a Facebook post. "It is time to link arms together to protect American values of freedom and opportunity."
In a staff memo, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the move affects at least 187 of the Internet giant's staff.
"We’re concerned about the impact of this order and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the U.S.," Google said in a statement. "We'll continue to make our views on these issues known to leaders in Washington and elsewhere."
The president's executive order suspends the entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, halts the admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely and bars entry for three months to residents from the predominantly Muslim countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
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The order made good on one of Trump's most controversial campaign promises, a series of Muslim-focused restrictions he says should prevent terrorists from entering U.S. soil. For many of his supporters, preventing or delaying legal immigrants from returning to high-paid tech jobs, which they say should go to U.S.-born workers anyway, is a small price to pay for the promise of more security.
The move is already roiling the tech industry, with affected employees being urged to return to the U.S. and consult with corporate immigration experts.
Internet Association President and CEO Michael Beckerman said the Internet industry is "deeply concerned" by Trump's order.
"While this order impacts many companies outside of the tech industry, Internet companies in particular thrive in the U.S. because the best and the brightest are able to create innovative products and services right here in America," Beckerman said in an emailed statement. "While we support President Trump’s efforts to grow our economy and allow ‘people of great talent’ to come into the U.S., the executive order signed yesterday has troubling consequences."
The ban includes green card holders who are authorized to live and work in the United States, according to a Homeland Security spokeswoman, Reuters reported. Some immigrants with legal visas trying to return to the U.S. from trips abroad were also detained, according to news reports.
"The blanket entry ban on citizens from certain primarily Muslim countries is not the best way to address the country’s challenges," Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and an adviser to President Trump said on Twitter. "Many people negatively affected by this policy are strong supporters of the U.S. They've done right, not wrong & don't deserve to be rejected."
In a memo sent to Google employees first reported by Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal, Pichai said one employee was rushing back from a trip to New Zealand before the order was assigned, while two others were grappling with what this might mean to their families.
A similar situation was playing out at other tech companies.
Microsoft: We share the concerns
Microsoft said it's providing legal advice and assistance to its employees affected by the executive order.
"We share the concerns about the impact of the executive order on our employees from the listed countries, all of whom have been in the United States lawfully," the tech giant said in a statement.
According to Microsoft's general counsel Brad Smith, 76 Microsoft employees are citizens with a U.S. visa from the affected countries.
"We’ve already contacted everyone in this group," he told employees in a memo. "But there may be other employees from these countries who have U.S. green cards rather than a visa who may be affected, and there may be family members from these countries that we haven’t yet reached."
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a LinkedIn post that his company would "continue to advocate on this important topic."
"As an immigrant and as a CEO, I’ve both experienced and seen the positive impact that immigration has on our company, for the country, and for the world," Nadella said.
Uber's Kalanick: I'll talk to Trump
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick told employees he would raise the immigration ban on Friday when he takes part in President Trump's first business advisory group meeting.
"While every government has their own immigration controls, allowing people from all around the world to come here and make America their home has largely been the U.S.’s policy since its founding. That means this ban will impact many innocent people," Kalanick said.
Cook: Apple wouldn't exist without immigration
Apple CEO Tim Cook was in Washington, D.C., where he has been meeting with GOP lawmakers and with Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner.
In a memo to employees, he said "it is not a policy we support."
"In my conversations with officials here in Washington this week, I’ve made it clear that Apple believes deeply in the importance of immigration — both to our company and to our nation’s future. Apple would not exist without immigration, let alone thrive and innovate the way we do," Cook wrote, according to a memo sent to employees worldwide and obtained by USA TODAY. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian immigrant.
Box: Looking at how to fight this legally
For Box CEO Aaron Levie, the Trump order also hit home. One of the founders of the cloud-based storage and services company is Iranian-American and Box is currently trying to assess how many of its employees are affected.
"At the corporate level, we are trying to take inventory on who could be impacted and ensuring that they stay within the country for now," Levie said. "We are really just getting a handle on the legal side of the situation, what we can fight and ultimately how we protect employees in the process."
More broadly, the order sends "the wrong moral message to the world and within our own country," Levie said, turning away refugees and doing nothing to make Americans safer. "It's very unfortunate and very disappointing," he said.
Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield also condemned the immigration ban.
"Immigration is unambiguously an economic benefit, but, doesn't matter: do the right thing because it's right," he wrote in a series of posts on Twitter. "My grandfather came from Poland between the wars, at 17, sponsored by an elder sister. Two more siblings made it. Everyone else died."
Technology investor Chris Sacca pledged to match donations to the American Civil Liberties Union up to $25,000 and then quickly raised it to $50,000. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, say they have either filed lawsuits or will do so shortly challenging the ban.
"The @aclu took Trump to court. Let's stand with them," he tweeted.
With protests spreading to airports on Saturday, Sam Altman, president of Silicon Valley tech incubator Y Combinator, urged the tech industry to speak up.
"It is time for tech companies to start speaking up about some of the actions taken by President Trump’s administration," Altman said in a blog post. "The tech community is powerful. Large tech companies in particular have enormous power and are held in high regard. We need to hear from the CEOs clearly and unequivocally. Although there is some business risk in doing so, there is strength in numbers—if everyone does it early this coming week, we will all make each other stronger."
Past tensions
Immigrants account for a significant part of the workforce in the tech industry, which has for years advocated loosening laws to increase the flow of skilled immigrants into the U.S. With its heavy reliance on the H-1B visa program that allows software engineers and other skilled workers to work in the U.S., Silicon Valley fears what immigration restrictions will come from the Trump administration.
Trump's perspective on immigrants, and Muslims in particular, has caused tensions between the White House and Silicon Valley. Tech executives and workers have denounced the president's anti-Muslim views and some have pledged not to help build Trump's proposed Muslim registry.
On Saturday, Chesky pushed back against Trump's executive order in a tweet. "Open doors brings all of U.S. together. Closing doors further divides U.S.," he wrote. "Let's all find ways to connect people, not separate them."
In a Facebook post, he offered free housing, even providing his personal email address. "We have 3M homes, so we can definitely find people a place to stay," he write.
Thiel in focus again
Some in Silicon Valley have direct ties to the Trump administration. Peter Thiel, a Trump transition team member, sits on the board of Facebook and he's a part-time partner at Y Combinator. He's an investor in many companies including Airbnb.
A Facebook employee of Middle Eastern descent told BuzzFeed News that some Facebook employees want the company to "clarify" its relationship with Thiel.
“There are questions here that we want answered. Does Thiel support this ban?" the person said. "Does he think the Facebook employees who come from Iran and those other countries shouldn’t be allowed to keep working here? We deserve to know his position on this.”
Uber's Kalanick said his policy is to engage with Trump.
"We partner around the world optimistically in the belief that by speaking up and engaging we can make a difference. Our experience is that not doing so shortchanges cities and the people who live in them. This is why I agreed in early December to join President Trump’s economic advisory group," he told employees. "I understand that many people internally and externally may not agree with that decision, and that’s OK. It's the magic of living in America that people are free to disagree."
The growing number of public statements from technology leaders was unusual, a measure of the perceived threat to their businesses and to their own political beliefs.
"As a tech leader and public CEO, I’m often advised to stay apolitical," Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson wrote in a Medium post. "But this isn’t politics, I believe this is a matter of objective right and wrong. Staying silent doesn’t feel like leadership to me. I encourage other leaders to consider the cost of silence."
Google's Pichai was the second executive of a major tech company to speak out against Trump's immigration order. Earlier Friday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he was concerned about the immigration order's reach.
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"Expanding the focus of law enforcement beyond people who are real threats would make all Americans less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don't pose a threat will live in fear of deportation," he wrote on his Facebook page.
In a statement on Saturday, Facebook said: "We are assessing the impact on our workforce and determining how best to protect our people and their families from any adverse effects."
Trump's executive order suspends the entry of Syrian refugees into U.S.
Trump's stance on immigration was one of the key reasons the tech industry widely opposed Trump's candidacy. Many of tech's most successful companies have been founded or are run by immigrants, and the industry employs thousands of immigrants, often from Asian countries.
After Trump's win, tech executives from Google, Facebook, Amazon and others met with the president-elect in a summit seen as a pragmatic move to find some common ground with the new administration. Tech leaders were largely silent as Trump has rapidly signed orders in his first week in office.
That changed later in the week. Facebook COO and and Lean In author Sheryl Sandberg also broke her silence, taking to Facebook to criticize the order that would bar funding to overseas healthcare providers that give abortion counseling.
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