Google Chief Executive Officer says the ban will create “barriers” to bringing great talent to the United States
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s India-born CEO Sundar Pichai on Saturday criticised President Donald Trump’s immigration order against people from seven Muslim-majority countries for four months.
President Trump has ordered “extreme vetting” of people entering the US from these countries and banned the entry of Syrian refugees until further notice, as part of new measures to “keep radical Islamic terrorists” out of America.
The seven countries are Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. The United Nations Refugee Agency and International Organization for Migration also called on the Trump administration to continue offering asylum to people fleeing war and persecution.
“Like many of you, I’m concerned about the impact of the recent executive orders signed by President Trump,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page. He said that America is a nation of immigrants and should be proud of it.
Pichai said that the decision would create “barriers” to bringing great talent to the US, as the Internet search giant ordered its travelling staff to return to America.
Zuckerberg said that the US should keep their doors open to refugees and those who need help. He said his wife Priscilla wouldn’t be here if the country had turned away refugees a few decades ago.
Pichai, in an email to staff, said that the US ban on foreign nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries will hit at least 187 Google employees.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Defense’s Twitter account posted a heart-warming story about an Iraqi refugee who enlisted as a Marine and went back to Iraq as part of his military duty.
“From refugee to #Marine,” @DeptofDefense tweeted, in what many see as a precision-strike subtweet at Trump’s anti-refugee rhetoric,” the tweet read.
An article published on Monday on the official Marines website also mentioned Marine Cpl Ali J Mohammed. “Despite the challenges Mohammed faced [in assimilating to US culture], he graduated from high school less than five years after coming to the US,” the blog read.
“On November 4, 2014, Mohammed made a life-changing decision, one which would bring him back to Iraq… he raised his right hand and swore his oath of enlistment into the [Marines]. His story is like many who take that oath, one that includes a desire to serve his country while being part of something larger than oneself,” it said.
The article had a subtle reference to the President and a jab on his policies. A few days ago, Badlands National Park took a stand against Trump by tweeting about climate change.
Media reports suggest that since Trump took over, several departments have reportedly received gag orders. Department of Agriculture scientists were told not to release any documents or post to social media. Health and Human Services employees were told to do the same; and Environmental Protection Agency staffers were ordered to stop posting to social media or talking to reporters.
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