Apple weighing legal action against Trump immigration ban, to match employee donations to ...
Apple CEO Tim Cook said his company is mulling legal options in light of President Donald Trump's recent executive order on immigration, while he personally puts pressure on "very, very senior people in the White House" to repeal the policy.
Speaking briefly with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Cook elaborated on comments made in a letter to employees this weekend regarding the travel restrictions. Echoing the memo, Cook said hundreds of Apple workers have already been impacted by Trump's order to temporarily block citizens of Muslim-majority countries Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S.
"More than any country in the world, this country is strong because of our immigrant background and our capacity and ability as people to welcome people from all kinds of backgrounds. That's what makes us special," Cook said. "We ought to pause and really think deeply through that."
In his letter, Cook went further, saying Trump's order is not a policy Apple supports.
Cook was part of a cadre of technology industry leaders who over the weekend publicly contested the new immigration policy. Executives from Facebook, Google, Lyft, Netflix, Uber and Twitter all spoke out against the travel restrictions. Google employees went so far as to stage a protest on Monday, a gathering that drew more than 2,000 people including CEO Sundar Pichai and cofounder Sergey Brin.
Apple employees are also making quiet contributions and have increased donations to refugee relief funds, which the company plans to match on a 2-to-1 basis, Cook said.
Beyond peaceful dissent, Amazon, Expedia and Microsoft are backing a Washington state attorney general who is suing Trump to stop further enforcement of the ban.
Apple has not yet decided whether to follow suit with its own legal option. Cook declined to comment on the matter, telling the WSJ that "we want to be constructive and productive." He did, however, share "heart-wrenching" stories about how the order is affecting Apple employees.
"These are people that have friends and family. They're co-workers. They're taxpayers. They're key parts of the community," Cook said.
Speaking briefly with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Cook elaborated on comments made in a letter to employees this weekend regarding the travel restrictions. Echoing the memo, Cook said hundreds of Apple workers have already been impacted by Trump's order to temporarily block citizens of Muslim-majority countries Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S.
"More than any country in the world, this country is strong because of our immigrant background and our capacity and ability as people to welcome people from all kinds of backgrounds. That's what makes us special," Cook said. "We ought to pause and really think deeply through that."
In his letter, Cook went further, saying Trump's order is not a policy Apple supports.
Cook was part of a cadre of technology industry leaders who over the weekend publicly contested the new immigration policy. Executives from Facebook, Google, Lyft, Netflix, Uber and Twitter all spoke out against the travel restrictions. Google employees went so far as to stage a protest on Monday, a gathering that drew more than 2,000 people including CEO Sundar Pichai and cofounder Sergey Brin.
Apple employees are also making quiet contributions and have increased donations to refugee relief funds, which the company plans to match on a 2-to-1 basis, Cook said.
Beyond peaceful dissent, Amazon, Expedia and Microsoft are backing a Washington state attorney general who is suing Trump to stop further enforcement of the ban.
Apple has not yet decided whether to follow suit with its own legal option. Cook declined to comment on the matter, telling the WSJ that "we want to be constructive and productive." He did, however, share "heart-wrenching" stories about how the order is affecting Apple employees.
"These are people that have friends and family. They're co-workers. They're taxpayers. They're key parts of the community," Cook said.
Comments
Meanwhile Cook is doing a pretty good job. Rather than saying he should be ousted you're going to have to suggest who'd do better. Under Cook's watch he hired Angela Ahrendts, whom with Ive went way beyond Steve's vision of what an Apple Store could be. Under Cook's watch Apple redefined and I would argue defined what a modern watch should be. AirPods happened under Cook's watch—as important a product as any iPod. It's early days. Apple has yet to reveal where it's decided to take the pro desktop market—we must have patience here. They are obviously working on something. And are probably working on a nice new Apple display and a modern WiFi networking solution. Among other things. For now Apple's doing better than ever. Let's see what pans out over the next three years. If nothing truly interesting happens from Apple in the next three years then by all means put in another CEO.
iOS is more polished and stable than ever and the app ecosystem is doing really great. We've a new vastly improved file system coming (under Cook's watch), a new vastly improved programming language (under Cook's watch), and a new cloud infrastructure coming. And besides what we don't know of we know Apple are both working on a car and a home voice speaker.
Under Cook's watch he successfully defeated the fucking FBI.
Speaking of products, you're a product of a FWP generation.
i have a problem on how it was rolled out. People stuck in airports...no one knows what's going on etc etc. it's a clown show. Unorganized fiasco. Embarrassing.
Quite the bashing without any intelligent purpose. If you have a point of view state it productively.
I also find it strange that "hundreds of Apple workers have already been impacted by Trump's order to temporarily block citizens of Muslim-majority countries Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S." Really?! That many non-citizen employees from those countries stuck outside the country?
Also, is Tim actually saying Apple was openly recruiting H-1B hires from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen? Because that doesn't seem very likely. It seems more likely he's playing the role of "good Progressive" to maintain his group status among the cool kid crowd. It's expected of him.
Why would Tim Cook get this company engaged into a political battle that has little to do with earnings, sales, or product development????
Why???
What part of "we make great products" does he not understand? What part of innovation does he not get? What was the point of hiring the many, many talented engineers, designers and others? What part of wall street consensus does he not see?
Now is not the time for arguments of moral values with the government. It's not the time for billion dollar lawsuits with vendors. It's not about finger pointing of who is responsible for sales taxes you consciously avoided.....
It's about the hard work of putting all those tools you have bought and coming up with great, innovative products.
Please Tim Cook, use your all access employee badge and go into that forbidden new products room and come out with a shopping cart of new stuff. Please.
wait till later, etc. Just be the best you can be when discussing this material. My thoughts only.
I do not want to make assumptions, however, have you been to countries where the people there want to kill you because you are an American. I have I been to three, Mexico being one of them and had to go there for work and need arm security since there are people there who want to kill or Kidnap you. Oh the US does not negotiate with kidnappers. I also been to a country which would fall into the category of a certain group of people who want to kill us because we do not believe what they believe. It is easy to say we should be nice to everyone when you are sitting in the US and most people here tend to respect everyone and accept most people difference. Try visiting a country where they do not see it that way.
Unlike pass conflicts the US got involved in where we were fighting a government and its military, we now have small groups who declared war on the US and it people, not just our government and military. They live in various parts of the world and government where these individuals live and operation are doing nothing to stop them. The US has tried the method of being nice not calling them names and saying we not against their belief systems, and where has the last 10 yrs or so of doing that got the US and those countries who have been dealing with these groups. Its has gotten the US and the EU no where, just more dead people who most likely did not hate these people but became targets of people who hate anyone who is not like them.
As 9secondkox said, the US does not make it hard to come to the US, it has rules and if you follow them you get in legally. I know plenty of people who has done this, from all over the world so the US does not discriminate. It is time for the US to enforce the laws we have and make those who should not be here to go back home. We also have to find a way to keep those who intend to harm us from getting in and the first step is to block those country which are doing nothing to crack down on those who hate everyone.
Apple and other US companies need to stay out of this. I work in the tech industry and have hired people so I see what is going on, this is not about the US not have the skills and talent is about people from out side the US who are willing to work for less money just to get into the US. I glad to see the US crack down on the H1B, too many people are using this to get their foot into the US and driving down wages. You wonder why wages are not going up, it is because 86K people getting H1B each year who are willing to work for a lower wage.
One last point, the last I check and some one can fact check me on this, the US is still at war with terrorist, not a specific country but any group who the US deems terrorist as such the President has War Power Act which allow him to block entry of any one person, group or country from entering the US. These people are the enemy and you do not let the enemy into your country. Apple and these companies are trending on thin ice when it comes to stuff like this.