Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during the Time 100 Summit on April 23, 2019, in New York.
Don Emmert | AFP | Getty Images
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Thursday urged lawmakers to pass an immigration reform that would pave the way for citizenship for immigrants known as “Dreamers.”
Cook issued the statement on behalf of the Business Roundtable, an influential group of prominent corporate leaders. Cook serves as chairman of the group’s immigration committee.
The statement continues Cook’s plea on behalf of Dreamers and follows comments from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who praised the bill on Wednesday.
“Dreamers have been at the forefront of fighting the pandemic as health workers, caring for our communities, and working in disciplines and industries that will help America grow stronger on the other side of COVID-19,” Cook wrote.
The business roundtable also called for further reform beyond the Law of Dreams and Promises to remedy the “faulty immigration system”.
Dreamers are undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. The dream law would create a path to citizenship for about 2.5 million people, according to its authors. House Democrats are expected to move forward with the bill this week.
Cook, in particular, was honest about the Dreamers. On Thursday, he said Apple has 450 Dreamers in a tweet. In 2019, Cook co-authored a court friend’s case filed with the Supreme Court with detailed narratives by several Dreamer Apple employees. At the time, the court was debating whether the Trump administration’s decision to end the Obama-era program that protects the Dreamers was legal.
“We do this here to emphasize that Apple not only cares as a company, but as leaders, colleagues, and human beings,” Cook wrote at the time. “This is a problem we feel to the end.”
The full business round table statement is reproduced below:
Dreamers – who came to America as children and know it as their only home – make invaluable contributions to America and certainly to companies like ours. Dreamers have been at the forefront of fighting the pandemic as health workers, caring for our communities, and working in disciplines and industries that will help America grow stronger on the other side of COVID-19. As we work to revive the US economy, we need their continued contributions as equal partners in the American story, and we urge members on both sides of the aisle to vote in support of the American Dream and Promise Act to make this possible.
The vast majority of Americans believe that defending the Dreamers should be a priority. As the American Dream and Promise Act moves forward, the business roundtable urges policymakers to prioritize bipartisan and practical solutions to address the faulty immigration system, enforce the rule of law, and address pressing challenges with that we face.