As President Donald Trump wraps up a week of turning campaign absurdities into nightmarish policies, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday joined dissenters with a post condemning Trump’s anti-immigrant actions.
“The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,” Zuckerberg writes in a Facebook post. He noted that his grandparents immigrated from Europe, while his wife Priscilla’s parents were refugees from China and Vietnam.
In his first week as president, Trump has ordered construction of a wall on the border with Mexico and signed an executive order that bans Syrians from taking refuge in the U.S., halts the refugee resettlement program and temporarily blocks people from a handful of unnamed countries from entering at all. Even legal immigrants are being warned not to travel outside the U.S., lest they be barred from reentry.
“The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that.”
Yes, Zuckerberg concedes, Americans’ safety matters. But Trump’s plans to bar refugees and curb immigration from certain countries would affect people who pose no threat to U.S. security, Zuckerberg pointed out. Not only would the moves make us less secure (by diverting resources from the actual problem of terrorism), they would force smart, talented people to live in fear unnecessarily.
Among those affected by Trump’s threats include so-called Dreamers, children brought to the United States at a young age. Trump has said he’ll end an Obama administration action that allows these young people to temporarily stay in the U.S. without fear of deportation.
“Right now, 750,000 Dreamers benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allows them to live and work legally in the US,” writes Zuckerberg. “I hope the President and his team keep these protections in place.”
Zuckerberg is rumored to be considering a run for political office, which perhaps explains the outspoken nature of his post.
“We are a nation of immigrants, and we all benefit when the best and brightest from around the world can live, work and contribute here,” Zuckerberg writes. “I hope we find the courage and compassion to bring people together and make this world a better place for everyone.”
Read Zuckerberg’s full post:
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