Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft And Other Silicon Valley Companies Denounce Immigration Ban
Out of these, a number of them are either Arab or South Asian immigrants who work for renowned companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft.
Companies including Microsoft, Facebook, and Google have pledged support for employees impacted by the travel ban. There’s was no shortage of confusion over the weekend, given that some judges have temporarily blocked parts of the order and the administration is giving conflicting messages on its implementation. This news story is related to Latest/182811-Trumps-next-move-H-1B-and-other-work-visa-reforms/ – breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne.
Highly skilled Canadians work in the USA with the TN-1 visa, which can not be changed unless or until there are changes to North American Free Trade Agreement. The biggest users of H-1B visas are Indian outsourcing companies Infosys, Tata and Wipro. Under the current system, companies wishing to bring in workers via the H-1B program must enter a lottery; the number of such visas granted per year is now capped at 85,000 (including visa-holders with master’s degrees or higher).
“If firms are using the program for cheap labor, I think it will affect them and they will have to pay workers more”, said Ron Hira, an associate professor at Howard University.
Trump’s official policy on the matter refers to the most controversial case of H-1B “substitution” in recent years – when in 2015 Disney forced sacked IT employees to train up their foreign-sourced H-1B replacements as a condition of final payment. Gary Burtless, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Bloomberg: “Immigrant STEM workers have contributed an outsize share to founding new companies, getting patents, and helping build up American companies, which in turn due to their success have created tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of jobs”.
Microsoft Like Apple, Microsoft also issues a memo to employees following the executive order from Donald Trump. They also promised to work with employees who would be affected by the ban.
From New York City to Portland, Oregon, airports across the United States have been filled this weekend with fervent demonstrators, protesting the immigration policies of President Trump.
High-skilled Canadian workers in the US are admitted under TN-1 visa, which the Trump administration is reportedly not targeting with this executive order. But he’s concerned immigrants in the pipeline for a decade could have their status jeopardized while the Trump administration figures out a new vetting policy.
US immigration restrictions introduced over the weekend are bringing the technology industry together in unified anger as never before. CNN reported that Department of Labor documents showed the Trump Organization failed to comply with regulations on some applications.
In a letter to staff obtained by Business Insider, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated the executive orders are “not a policy we support”. The important thing, though, is that it’s a draft. It might not be issued, or could be modified in any number of ways even if it is issued.
MIT said that the ban was already affecting worldwide students, and Carnegie Mellon engineering professor and frequent tech industry commentator Vivek Wadhwa said that it was courageous for Butterfield to make a statement.
Tech companies were far from the only ones speaking out against the immigration order, but they were, as a group, the most vocal. Numerous biggest companies continue with questionable tax practices.
What a new tech political engagement may mean in the coming weeks remains to be seen.
Following the ACLU’s challenge in court, federal judge Ann Donnelly issued an emergency stay on Saturday night in NY against the executive order, temporarily allowing people who have landed in the USA with a valid visa to remain.
Many tech executives and venture capitalists opposed Trump’s candidacy. Put another way, it could hasten the development of jobs, infrastructure, services, and other forms of growth overseas, rather than in the U.S.
Apart from executives, numerous rank-and-file employees in Silicon Valley are people from different nations. Also, the E-2 program, which is an investor visa, is subject to change.