Over 100 executives of the most influential tech companies in the United States participated and signed onto a letter that urges Congress to protect Dreamers. T-Mobile and Sprint remained silent as a merger between the two companies were announced and still under review.
The coalition believes that if the nation's economy will lose $350 billion in GDP and $90 billion in tax revenue if it loses its Dreamer protection. The letter urges Congress to immediately act in protecting the dreamers and not to wait for court cases to be decided. The letter highlighted that the Dreamers are Americans' friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
Tech and telecom giants including AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, Apple's Tim Cook, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Google's Sundar Pichai, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg signed the letter in support of the cause.
T-Mobile and Sprint failed to sign and give their comment regarding the letter. Reports are circulating that they are silent due to their proposed merger which was announced in April and is still currently under review by the Justices and FCC. The $26 billion merger deal will shrink the competition of wireless carriers in the American Market into just three. The two companies are currently lobbying with the Trump administration for the approval of the merger.
The decisions of the businesses to sign the letter shouldn't be influenced by their process of approval. The letter, however, questions most of the United States President's policies. President Trump is the biggest opponent of the recent administration's Deferred Action Policy (DACA). President Obama's program allows illegally admitted children to pursue education and work in the United States without the necessity of becoming a citizen or having the fear of deportation.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere was in a disagreement with Trump in 2015 after Trump tweeted that he wasn't happy with the services of T-Mobile at the Trump Hotel in New York, describing it to be "terrible". The CEO responded that he will leave Trump's hotel instantly based on his comments.
The two companies seek the services of former FCC Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to help them move the deal forward. The T-Mobile CEO also sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that assures that they will not increase consumer wireless plan prices for three years after the merger was approved.
The two companies plans, however, faces opposition in Congress. In response to the merger, eight Democrats wrote a letter asking FCC and the Justice Department to disapprove the deal.
