Dozens of the world’s multinationals and tech companies have launched a fight to help keep “Dreamers” in the US, as time runs out on Barack Obama’s amnesty for the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as children.
“Without an immediate, permanent, legislative solution roughly 800,000 Dreamers who are working, going to school and serving in our nation’s military will lose their ability to work and study legally,” 65 business and industry groups including Amazon, Apple, Goog-le and Facebook said in a petition to Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
The immigrants “will be forced from jobs and subject to immediate deportation from the country they grew up in”, the lobby says. “If Congress fails to act, our economy could lose $215bn from the national GDP and $24.6bn in social security and Medicare contributions.”