Google is donating $4 million to support causes related to immigration. This is a response to the United States President Donald Trump's executive order which bans citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries for 90 days.
Google co-founder and current president of Alphabet Sergei Brin even joined protesters against the order at the San Francisco International Airport. Sometime in 1979, Brin's family previously traveled to the United States from the Soviet Union to escape Jewish persecution.
$2 million is said to come from the company itself while its employees supported the remaining amount. The money is going to four organizations, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), International Rescue Committee (IRC) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees / UN Refugee Agency (UNHR). Google's crisis campaign is the company's largest fund.
ACLU has revealed it has received 6 times as much money as it usually receives in a whole year over the weekend. According to a spokesperson, the civil liberties group received more than $24 million in online donations from 356,306 people. The transportation network Lyft has also pledged to give $1 million to ACLU over the next four years.
The immigration ban will also affect citizens with valid visas. Sundar Pichai, an Indian immigrant who just so happens to be the CEO of the tech giant Google sent a memo to recall employees who were on vacation or business abroad to fly back to the US immediately. According to the memo, 187 Google employees were directly affected by the Trump order. A lot of them tried to get back into the country before the order was made official, however, not everyone made it back in time.
"We're upset about the impact of this order," says Pichai in a company-wide email. "We've always made our views on immigration issues known publicly and will continue to do so."
