Business leaders make a strong stand against ending DACA

It didn’t take long for the more practical leaders of America’s business community to point to the foolishness of President Trump’s decision to end the Obama-era program allowing the children of illegal immigrants to live and work without punishment. Even Trump has appeared to waffle, though his desire to dismantle anything President Obama accomplished always seems to push him past any common-sense hesitations. He probably couldn’t care less about dismantling DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but his campaign was based on focusing hatred on President Obama, so he’s giving his supporters what they want, in his mind – ignoring that his approval numbers are sinking.

And they’re really dropping among business leaders, who know that deporting 800,000 undocumented workers, many of whom work for major corporations, will be incredibly foolish. Trump’s administration is hearing from the heads of virtually every major corporation in the United States Said Apple CEO Tim Cook: “250 of my Apple coworkers are Dreamers. I stand with them. The deserve our respect as equals and a solution rooted in American values.”

Taking this kind of punitive action will hurt the American economy, of course, but it also flies against the very foundation of this democracy, that it should be welcoming. America is a nation of immigrants, and Donald Trump, raised in New York City, the gateway for many generations of immigrants, knows it. He should follow the advice of business leaders and reverse course on this politically-driven policy.

This story was originally published September 6, 2017 at 10:45 AM with the headline "Business leaders make a strong stand against ending DACA."