Facebook, Apple CEOs blast ‘inhumane’ Trump immigration policy
June 20, 2018
The separations and detention of children at the southern US border with Mexico have caused an uproar in the United States. Now the business community is coming forward, criticising the policy.
The family separations are the result of the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy in which all those apprehended entering the US illegally, including those seeking asylum, are criminally charged, which generally leads to children being separated from their parents.
Not only has the latest policy caused an uproar in the US but has also garnered criticism from, after videos of children in cages and audiotape of children wailing for their parents were broadcasted on cable networks and posted on social media.
So far nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their families during a six-week period in April and May.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he was donating money to groups that help immigrant families get legal advice and translation services at the border. He asked others to do the same. Around 2,300 minors have been separated from their parents at the border between May 5 and June 9, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
"We need to stop this policy right now," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted that the stories and images about family separation were "gut-wrenching."
In an interview with The Irish Times, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the policy "is inhumane. It needs to stop."
In a statement released on Twitter, the founders of Airbnb said separating kids from their families is "heartless, cruel, immoral and counter to the American values of belonging."
Necessary to secure border
Trump administration officials say the zero-tolerance policy, which was not practised by the two previous administrations, is necessary to secure the border and deter illegal immigration.
Trump has sought to use the widespread outrage over the family separations to push through other immigration priorities that have stalled in Congress, such as funding for his long-promised wall along the Mexican border. He has consistently blamed Democrats for the impasse, even though his fellow Republicans control both chambers in Congress.
“It is the Democrats (sic) fault for being weak and ineffective with Boarder (sic) Security and Crime,” he tweeted on Monday.
Democrats have accused the president of using children as hostages in the political dispute over immigration.
In Geneva, the top UN human rights official called on the Trump administration on Monday to halt its “unconscionable” policy of forcibly separating children from migrant parents irregularly entering the country via Mexico.
