With President Trump hell-bent on throwing non-Americans out of the country, is it the beginning of the dark ages for the United States?
Just hours after President Trump signed an executive order banning refugees from seven countries from entering the United States for ninety days, tech industry honchos began publishing notices and took to social media to stiffly oppose this presidential decree and even warned their employees of its potential adverse effects. Almost every technology company right from Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft to Airbnb and Box has opposed this decision of President Trump and said that this will badly affect their employees and have a negative impact on the United States’ corporate ecosystem.
The signing of this discriminatory executive order by the President affected hundreds of refugees, many of whom were detained and stranded at the airports in spite of them holding a legal visa. Several tech industry leaders met President Trump in his New York office in December, exploring chances of them working together, and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Tesla CEO Elon Musk even joined the Trump administration as business advisors. But everyone was quick to voice their opposition to this draconian law that would restrict the entry of immigrants and refugees into the United States just because of the faith they follow.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin joined protestors who were opposing this ban at the San Francisco International Airport and told one reporter that he was attending the protest because he originally came to the United States as a refugee.
Google employees protest Trump’s immigration ban https://t.co/U0sh6V4CIJ #Sergey_Brin #Google #Donald_Trump #SocialMedia #Amman
— Linkage-ME (@LinkageME) January 31, 2017
Apple CEO Tim Cook in an email to Apple employees said that Apple would not exist without immigration, and wouldn’t be able to flourish and innovate the way they do without the strength of its staff coming from different corners of the world. This is a significant statement in this context as tech industry leaders feel that this directive from President Trump will hurt the United States economically and adversely affect the lives of scores of professionals currently employed in American technology companies. It is no secret that tech companies established in and operating from the United States benefit from immigration and diversity and they see this policy of President Trump as a threat, citing the ban as un-American. It is also widely perceived by a majority of tech leaders that they will face more damage if they remain silent on this issue and this may be a precursor to the tech industry flexing its muscles more often against the President.
It is interesting to note that several stalwarts of the American tech industry are immigrants, including Google’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, both of whom are of Indian origin. The American IT and technology industry feels that this presidential order will negatively impact top talent coming to the United States and harm its economy to an irreparable extent. Besides, there are several individuals who will be directly affected by this presidential order banning immigrants and refugees from countries outside North America. Tech companies in the United States believe that this order will lower the morale of their employees – especially immigrants – and may adversely affect the cutting-edge innovation the country is famous for. These are the obviously visible ramifications of President Trump’s executive decision. Will there be any other drastic consequences of this anti-immigration law, only time and Trump’s presidency will tell.
