Apple, Microsoft Step Up to Defend Dreamers From Deportation

Other tech companies call on Congress to enact DACA into law
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Tim Cook attends the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, ID.Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Tech executives are near-unanimous in condemning the Trump administration's plans to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. But some are going further than others in promising to help employees affected by the move.

Microsoft and Apple are offering the most full-throated defense of "Dreamers"---undocumented individuals who have been in the US since they were young and registered with the federal government to get work permits.

"If Congress fails to act, our company will exercise its legal rights properly to help protect our employees," Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith wrote in a blog post Tuesday, shortly after US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the administration would stop accepting new applications and seek to "wind down" the program. "If the government seeks to deport any one of them, we will provide and pay for their legal counsel," Smith wrote, of the 39 Dreamers who work at Microsoft. He said the company would also seek to intervene in those cases.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella echoed those sentiments in a post on LinkedIn.

Apple CEO Tim Cook likewise condemned the Trump administration's decision and pledged in a note to employees to offer any employees affected by the change the “support they need, including the advice of immigration experts,” Recode reported. Cook also tweeted that he stands with Apple's DACA employees.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, spoke out against the decision to rescind DACA and encouraged users to call Congress to support a measure that would enact the DACA program---created by an executive order by then-President Obama---into law. But he stopped short of offering to cover legal expenses for affected employees. Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

Amazon, AT&T, Lyft, Tesla, Uber, and hundreds of other companies joined Facebook in a letter from Fwd.us, a political group created by Zuckerberg, that also called on Congress to protect the Dreamers. IBM supported a similar move in its own tweet.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai took to Twitter to call on Congress to act to defend DACA. Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins tweeted that the company stands by all Dreamers and called on Congress to act. New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi tweeted in support of DACA and the Dreamers. None of those companies responded to requests for comment on whether they would pay legal fees for employees.

Other big tech companies, including Oracle and Intel, appear so far to be silent on the administration's move. Oracle's silence isn't surprising--it didn't have much to say about Trump's Muslim ban. But the lack of response from Intel is more surprising. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, who quit Trump's American Manufacturing Council last month over the President's remarks about the Charlottesville, spoke out against the Muslim ban in January.