 "Decision to end DACA is wrong and cruel for young people says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg")
The Donald Trump administration in the US has ordered an
end to the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
program. Meant to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation, the DACA program gave a lot of young adults the right to work legally in the US. [caption id=“attachment_2054089” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Mark Zuckerberg in a file photo. AFP[/caption] But the Trump administration, using the anti-immigrant spiel and the justification that DACA results in job losses for native Americans, said that the decision was driven by a concern for ‘millions of Americans victimised by this unfair system’. As is the case with most of Trump administrations policies on immigrations, the tech industry has come out vocally against this decision. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the decision to end DACA as ’not just wrong, but particularly cruel to young people’. “The young people covered by DACA are our friends and neighbors. They contribute to our communities and to the economy. I’ve gotten to know some Dreamers over the past few years, and I’ve always been impressed by their strength and sense of purpose. They don’t deserve to live in fear,” said Zuckerberg. Here is the complete statement put out by Zuckerberg on the matter.
This comes close on the heels of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s statement on the matter. “250 of my Apple co-workers are #Dreamers. I stand with them. They deserve our respect as equals and a solution rooted in American values,” Cook had tweeted on Sunday. On Friday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith had criticised the presidential stance. “We are deeply concerned by news reports about changes to DACA that are under consideration. These changes would not only negatively impact thousands of hardworking people across the US, but will be a step backwards for our entire nation,” Smith said in a blog post. “Ending DACA will drastically disrupt the lives of these individuals who willingly came forward to register with the federal government. They could lose their jobs and risk deportation,” Smith added.