Human Resources, General Counsels Prepared To Fight For DACA

Can the business community check Trump?

(Photo credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

I hate arguing for basic human decency along economic lines. You should be good to people, if I have to bribe you with money than it really doesn’t count.

But if you are one of those people who can only defend policies if they help your personal or professional bottom line, then the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is among the most easy to defend. Hundreds of thousands of people are employed in this country, under that plan. With unemployment being as low as it is, throwing all of those people out of the country is just STUPID. Purely economically stupid.

Corporate Counsel reports that the business community is trying to make that fact obvious to Congress:

More than 100 human resources chiefs and dozens of the world’s largest businesses on Thursday ramped up support for undocumented workers, signaling their opposition to the Trump administration’s move to scuttle an immigration program that allows hundreds of thousands workers to be employed…

Meanwhile, dozens of the largest companies and industry groups also announced a coalition urging action to protect the DACA program. The Coalition for the American Dream includes major technology companies, including Amazon, Apple and Facebook, and it also includes big names such as General Motors, Google, Hewlett Packard, IBM and Microsoft.

Xenophobia is not good for business. Jingoism is not good for business. People who work are good for business. And DACA recipients have shown a willingness to work.

About three-fourths of major U.S. companies employ workers who are participating in DACA, according to a group formed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and other heavyweights from the technology industry. FWD.us formed in 2013 by the tech giants to push for immigration reform. A report from the group found that canceling the program would mean 30,000 workers a month would lose jobs.

Other estimates show that companies would also face $6.3 billion in turnover costs. If DACA is rescinded without a replacement, companies could face fines, up to $20,000 per violation, for employing undocumented workers.

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In normal times, the business community would restrain either party’s nativist impulse to appeal to their lowest common denominator voters. But these are not normal times.

Is there a tax cut available that can offset these loses? We might find out in 2018.

HR Chiefs, Tech Companies Ramp Up Opposition to Trump’s Immigration Policies [Corporate Counsel]

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