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American CEOs Say Immigration Policies Pose A New Threat

America’s most influential CEOs now say that Trump’s immigration policies pose a new threat to the country as a whole, and they say it hits at the heart of American industry; namely: competitiveness.

The CEOs in question include Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Tim Cook of Apple, and Ginni Rometty of IBM. They are just a small sliver of a CEO supergroup known as the Business Roundtable, a pro-business organization working to promote a thriving U.S. economy and expand opportunity for all Americans [1].

The group penned an open letter to Kirstjen Nielson, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, citing “serious concern about changes in immigration policy that are causing considerable anxiety for many thousands of our employees while threatening to disrupt company operations”.

They are referring primarily to legal immigrants who stay in the United States and often get jobs in STEM fields, furthering the advancement of technology and business in the United States. These immigration policies pose a new threat to that advancement.

The executives stressed that illegal immigrants that face uncertainty about their immigration status may be inclined to leave the U.S., and future generations may not even travel to the U.S. in the first place which may leave a gaping hole in STEM field in future years [2].

This has been a long-standing issue, particularly in Silicon Valley. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a longtime advocate for positive immigration reform. His long running immigration reform groups FWD.us has been fighting for positive reform.

These letters came as response to the recent outrage over the Mollie Tibbets case, which is a hot button issue among all republican candidates this midterm election cycle.

Sources:

[1]: Business Roundtable – About Us.

[2]: CBS News – Top CEOs warn Trump’s immigration policies pose a threat.