Work permit row: US tech giants to side with staff

US tech giants, including Apple, Google and Microsoft, have pledged to stand by their employees after the Trump administration scrapped an amnesty programme that granted work permits to immigrants who arrived in the country illegally as children.

US President Donald Trump yesterday scrapped an Obama-era programme known as Deferred Action for Children Arrival (DACA), a move likely to affect 800,000 undocumented workers including more than 7,000 Indian-Americans.

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

Apple CEO Tim Cook 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.” Apple will “fight” for its Dreamers, Cook tweeted.

“#Dreamers contribute to our companies and our communities just as much as you and I. Apple will fight for them to be treated as equals,” he tweeted.

“You’re going to have to go through us to deport Dreamers who work here,” Microsoft said, adding it will stick by its employees affected by any change to DACA, even in court.

“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.

“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.

“Dreamers make our country & communities stronger. We stand for diversity and economic opportunity for everyone. Legislation to protect 800,000 #Dreamers is an economic & humanitarian imperative. Congress needs to act quickly,” Nadella tweeted.

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 programme-created by an executive order by then-President Obama -into law.

Google’s India born CEO Sundar Pichai took to Twitter to call on Congress to act to defend the DACA.