Tech giants to campaign for Dreamers to remain in US

Amazon and Uber, among others, are members of the Coalition for the American Dream which supports legislation to keep DACA recipients in the US. Lawmakers are expected to consider legislation regarding Dreamers in December.

|
Lynne Sladky/AP
Supporters of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protest in Miami on Oct. 13. Tech giants like Amazon and Uber are pushing for legislation which will allow DACA recipients to remain in the US.

Nearly two dozen major companies in technology and other industries are planning to launch a coalition to demand legislation that would allow young, illegal immigrants a path to permanent residency, according to documents seen by Reuters.

The Coalition for the American Dream intends to ask Congress to pass bipartisan legislation this year that would allow these immigrants, often referred to as "Dreamers," to continue working in the United States, the documents said.

Alphabet's Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Intel, Uber, IBM, Marriott International, and other top US companies are listed as members, one of the documents shows. Reuters was first to report the news.

Amazon, Intel, Uber, and Univision Communications confirmed their membership, but the other companies did not immediately comment. It is possible that plans to launch the group could change.

"We're pleased to join with other organizations in urging Congress to pass legislation to protect Dreamers," Intel spokesman Will Moss said in a statement.

Matthew Wing, a spokesman for Uber, said, "Uber joined the Coalition for the American Dream because we stand with the Dreamers. We've also held town halls, provided legal support, and launched an online Dreamer Resource Center for any of our drivers."

The push for this legislation comes after President Trump's September decision to allow the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to expire in March. That program, established by former President Barack Obama in 2012, allows approximately 900,000 illegal immigrants to obtain work permits.

Some 800 companies signed a letter to congressional leaders after Mr. Trump's decision, calling for legislation protecting Dreamers. That effort was spearheaded by a pro-immigration reform group Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg co-founded in 2013 called FWD.us.

Many of the companies that endorsed that letter are named as joining the new coalition. The group has planned to take out ads in news publications, though this is subject to change, according to an email last week seen by Reuters.

"Dreamers are part of our society, defend our country, and support our economy," said one of the coalition documents, which is being shared by the group to recruit additional companies.

A signup form for the group said 72 percent of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies employ DACA recipients.

Trump campaigned for president on a pledge to toughen immigration policies and build a wall along the US border with Mexico. He has left the fate of DACA up to Congress.

Action may come in December, when Congress must pass a spending bill to keep the US government open. Democrats have considered insisting on help for the Dreamers as their price for providing votes that may be required to prevent a government shutdown.

"No politician wants to go home for the holidays and read stories about how this is going to be DACA recipients' last holidays in the US," said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, in an interview on Thursday. He declined to comment on the new coalition.

"You will see this continue to escalate until the end of the year," he said.

This story was reported by Reuters.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Tech giants to campaign for Dreamers to remain in US
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2017/1020/Tech-giants-to-campaign-for-Dreamers-to-remain-in-US
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe