Google backs Biden's immigration efforts, pays fees of 500 Dreamers

Google said that it would donate $250,000 grants as application fees of about 500 young immigrants seeking employment under the US government program- the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

Alphabet Inc's Google on Wednesday (local time) said that it would donate USD 250,000 grants as application fees of about 500 young immigrants seeking employment under the US government program- the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

"Google.org is making a USD 250,000 grant to United We Dream to cover the DACA application fees of over 500 Dreamers. This grant builds on over USD 35 million in support that Google.org and Google employees have contributed over the years to support immigrants and refugees worldwide, including more than USD 1 million from Googlers and Google.org specifically supporting DACA and domestic immigration efforts through employee giving campaigns led by HOLA (Google's Latino Employee Resource Group)," the company said in a statement.

 

It further stated that legislation is of utmost need to protect the Dreamers and deliver other much-needed reforms.

Committing to support the incoming Joe Biden-led administration, Kent Walker the senior vice president of Google, said in a blog post, "We will support efforts by the new Congress and incoming Administration to pass comprehensive immigration reform that improves employment-based visa programs that enhance American competitiveness, gives greater assurance to immigrant workers and employers, and promotes better and more humane immigration processing and border security practices."

On December 29, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris had promised to introduce a bill to the Congress with a roadmap to citizenship for 11 million undocumented people here.

"Day one @JoeBiden and I will act to get Covid-19 under control and save American lives. We'll take action to protect Dreamers and send a bill to Congress with a roadmap to citizenship for 11M undocumented people. And we'll rejoin the Paris Agreement. This is just the beginning," she wrote on Twitter.

Dreamers refer to an immigrant youth who qualifies for the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

The programme gives temporary protection to undocumented migrants (undocumented people) who arrived in the US as children, to live and work in the US without fear of deportation.

Earlier, the Donald Trump-led administration had planned to scrap the DACA programme created by the Obama administration to give temporary, renewable protections to these young people, nicknamed Dreamers.