Apple, Facebook, and Google back laws to protect Dreamer immigrants, call them 'boon to US'

In a step that will be a major boost to Dreamer immigrants in the United States, more than 100 corporate leaders and well known personalities have spoken up in their favour calling them a "boon to the US." On Monday, February 11, scores of these personalities urged the US lawmakers to protect these immigrants and said that they had a right to live in the US.

In an open letter to the Congress, CEOs of companies such as General Motors, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Coca Cola, Google, AT&T and Microsoft among many others, said that the dreamer immigrants were a dedicated workforce and must be protected.

These are our friends, neighbors and co-workers and they should not have to wait for court cases to be decided to determine their fate when Congress can act now," the executives said in the letter, reported the Agence France-Presse. The letter also appeared as a full-page ad in The New York Times on Monday.

The open letter also spoke about how these immigrants benefit the US economy and deporting them would not only uproot their lives but also cause a sizeable loss to the nation. "Studies by economists across the ideological spectrum have determined that if Congress fails to act, our economy could lose $350 billion in GDP and the federal government could lose $90 billion in tax revenue," the letter said.

"We have seen time and again that the overwhelming majority of Americans of all political backgrounds agree that we should protect Dreamers from deportation."

Dreamers are undocumented immigrants in the US, who were brought into the country as children. They were protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) regulation brought in by former president Barack Obama, under which they could work legally in the US if they were able to meet certain conditions.

 However, President Donald Trump in 2017 had declared the DACA "dead," putting about 800,000 immigrants, including 8,000 Indians, at risk of being deported. The decision received criticism and was opposed by several states, many of which also sued the Trump administration to block the plan to cancel the protection to immigrants and deport them.

The lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of New York and the plaintiffs are New York, Washington, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Delaware, Illinois, New Mexico, Oregon, North Carolina, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Virginia.

The DACA regulation is currently in effect on court order and Trump recently also offered to provide temporary protection to Dreamers in exchange for the US-Mexico border wall. But his plans suffered a huge blow when the Supreme Court said that the program protecting Dreamers would stay in place for now.

Trump hoped his offer would end the month-long partial government shutdown in the nation, but the court decision left his bargain groundless.