San Francisco, Jan 21 (IANS): Tech giants like Apple and Google rallied behind the new US President Joe Biden as he signed two executive orders that extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme for another four years and overturn the Trump administration's travel bans on largely Muslim-majority countries.
The Biden administration also aims a new bill that would provide 11 million undocumented immigrants with a pathway to citizenship and an eight-year waiting period before they can become permanent residents, according to a report in Politico.
"We welcome President Biden's commitment to pursuing comprehensive immigration reform that reflects the American values of justice, fairness and dignity. This effort will strengthen American communities and the pathways to opportunity this country has long fostered," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement late on Wednesday.
"In the weeks and months to come, business leaders look forward to working with the Administration, as well as Democrats and Republicans in Congress, to achieve bipartisan, practical and comprehensive solutions to fix our broken immigration system, including a permanent solution for Dreamers that includes a path to citizenship," Cook added.
Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted: "We applaud @POTUS's quick action on Covid relief, the Paris Climate Accord, and immigration reform. Google has supported action on these important issues & we look forward to working with the new administration to help the US recover from the pandemic + grow our economy".
In a tweet, Twitter said that the "DACA Executive Order signed this evening delivers hope for #Dreamers. Diversity makes the US, our company, and our world better".
Former US President Donald Trump had issued a proclamation suspending a number of visa programmes, including guest worker visas, like the H-1B.
"We are thankful that President Biden and Vice President Harris are following through on their commitment to send a bill to Congress to fix our broken immigration system," FWD.us president Todd Schulte said in a statement, reports The Verge.
FWD.us is a pro-immigration lobbying group that advocates for immigrant reforms, particularly for H-1B visas for foreign workers in STEM fields.