Zuckerberg Speaks Out Against Trump's Immigration Orders

Helping people who need help is 'who we are'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 28, 2017 10:01 AM CST
Zuckerberg Speaks Out Against Trump's Immigration Orders
Mark Zuckerberg took to Facebook Friday to criticize President Trump's executive orders on immigration and refugees.   (AP Photo/Esteban Felix, File)

"We should be proud" that the US is a "nation of immigrants," Mark Zuckerberg writes in a Facebook post criticizing President Trump's executive orders on immigration. Business Insider reports it's the first time Zuckerberg has spoken out about Trump's policies since the latter became president. The Facebook CEO starts by noting that his great-grandparents were immigrants from Europe and his wife's parents were refugees from Asia. He argues that refugees and undocumented immigrants are not the enemies and that Trump's executive orders actually make the US less safe by taking the focus away from actual threats. Furthermore, Zuckerberg says helping people who need help is "who we are."

But it wasn't all negative. Zuckerberg says he hopes Trump keeps his word to "work something out" for the hundreds of thousands of young DREAMers brought to the US by their parents, as well as his stated desire to continue letting "people of great talent" into the US. Even the mild criticism in Zuckerberg's post is unusual so far among tech leaders, most of whom seem "to be rushing to fall in line" with Trump after speaking out against him during the election, the Guardian reports. Zuckerberg has been an advocate for immigration reform for years now. "They are our future too," he writes in the Facebook post. (More Mark Zuckerberg stories.)

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