Tech leaders, including Apple, and the CEOS at Google, Facebook, eBay, and Oracle are not happy with the immigration-related executive order from Donald Trump that has sparked worries and anger around the globe Saturday. The order, issued Friday, does not permit entry into the U.S. of people with visas or green cards from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Except for the indefinite ban on Syria, the restrictions are only in place for 90 days at the moment, but that could easily be extended anytime.
The order also bars refugees for 120 days and, once a review of the refugee program is completed, a cap of 50,000 will be imposed, less than half the 110,000 refugees admitted in 2016. The ban prohibits about 134 million people from entering the U.S.
Google sent a memo to its employees urging those with a green card or visa from one of the seven banned countries to cancel any travel plans.
The actual number is 187, The Wall Street Journal says.
The memo states: "Please do not travel outside of the U.S. until the ban is lifted. While the entry restriction is currently only in place for 90 days, it could be extended with little or no warning."
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in an an email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal:
“We’re upset about the impact of this order and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the US. [...] It’s painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues.” [...]
Mr. Pichai, who grew up in India, said that at an internal meeting on Friday broadcast to all staff, two Google employees apparently affected by the policy discussed their situations. They were “grappling with what this might mean for them and their families,” he wrote. “Just as that discussion was happening, another Googler was rushing back from a trip to New Zealand to make it into the US before the order was signed.”
So why was Google trying to normalize Trump earlier this week?
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Square CEO Jack Dorsey also raised objections. Zuckerberg noted that his wife Priscilla Chan came to the United States decades ago as a refugee. Dorsey told CNNMoney:
"We benefit from immigration. We benefit from diversity. We benefit from including more people because we see different perspectives," Dorsey told CNNMoney. "And the goal of the companies we build in San Francisco, and New York, and anywhere in this country is to have global impact. And to have global impact, you really need to understand the world. And to understand the world, you need to have people from all over the world inside your company."
Chorus CEO and former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo also had a comment:
And eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, the child of Iranian parents, tweeted that “Trump’s order is simple bigotry. And also: