Apple CEO Tim Cook blasted President Trump’s executive orders on immigration Saturday, saying that immigration has been essential to Apple’s corporate climate.
“Apple would not exist without immigration, let alone thrive and innovate the way we do,” Cook wrote in an email to Apple staff, Recode reported.
“I’ve heard from many of you who are deeply concerned about the executive order issued yesterday restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. I share your concerns. It is not a policy we support.”
Cook quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the note to employees: “In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, ‘We may have all come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now.’”
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The statement comes after Apple CEO spent Thursday and Friday in Washington, D.C., meeting with senators, dining with the president’s daughter and son-in-law as well as Trump’s nominee to be Veterans Affairs secretary.
The executive order signed on Friday prohibits foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslims countries – Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Libya – from entering the U.S.
The immigration restriction is expected to stay in place for a minimum of 90 days.
The Trump order also bars Syrian refugees from entering the U.S. indefinitely, and halts all refugee resettlements for four months while official aim to tighten the vetting process, which is already the strictest in the world.