Amid growing fears that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, initiated in 2012 by President Barack Obama, could be about to be terminated by President Donald Trump, top executives from a variety of US academic institutions, business groups, and companies have joined together to voice their support for the scheme.
Over 350 executives and leaders of other organizations have written an open letter. According to the Wall Street Journal, the letter urges congressional leaders and the US President to preserve the five-year-old deferred action program, which provides protection from deportation for almost 800,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as minors, referred to as Dreamers. The letter states that Dreamers are crucial to the future of the US economy and their businesses, and help the country to continue to have a global competitive advantage.
Top executives from dozens of tech companies, such as Google, Amazon, and Apple signed the letter, as did the chief executives of Starbucks, and General Motors, as well as investors like Warren Buffet, and the leaders of non-profit organizations and trade groups, according to the Journal. The effort was coordinated by pro-immigration lobbying group FWD.us, which was co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, who also signed the letter.
The executives claim that the US economy could lose $460.3 billion and Social Security and Medicare as much as $24.6 billion in tax contributions if Dreamers are suddenly denied authorization to legally work in the US.