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It was never referenced directly, but President Donald Trump's travel ban loomed over RSA Conference 2017 and led to several speakers delivering pro-immigration remarks during the show.

Starting with the opening keynotes on Tuesday, several RSA Conference speakers called for tech immigration reform and addressed Trump's recent executive order, which prohibited visitors, refugees and legal U.S. residents from seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the U.S. Those nations are Libya, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.

The remarks were at times subtle references to immigration and diversity, while at other times stronger critiques of Trump's actions. Zulfikar Ramzan, CTO of RSA, delivered Tuesday's opening keynote and got the ball rolling on the issue.

"Do we believe in the power of diversity? Can we address the complex cybersecurity challenges on the horizon and the massive staffing crunch that faces our industry and plagues it, if we continue to alienate half of the population across gender, race and culture? No," Ramzan said. "This year, in fact, we held our inaugural cybersecurity and diversity session at the RSA Conference. I'm asking you to join that conversation."

Brad Smith, Microsoft president and chief legal officer, offered more explicit comments on Trump's executive order and compared it to a different controversy featured at last year's RSA Conference: the legal battle between Apple and the FBI over encryption.

"Just as we came together last year in an important moment in time when everyone was focused on the Apple case, there is an obvious issue that is uniting our industry today that I think has some relevance as well," Smith said during his RSA Conference 2017 keynote. "As the country and world talk about immigration, they look at the technology sector and they recognize that, as an industry, we in many ways have brought the world together. We bring the world together in our technology and products and connections we forge with people across borders every day. But it's more than that. We almost uniquely have brought the world together under our own roofs."

Microsoft was one of more than 100 companies, including Google, Intel and Facebook, that signed an amicus brief opposing Trump's executive order and calling for tech immigration reform. Smith explained why the travel ban was particularly relevant to both Microsoft and the tech industry as a whole; he said Microsoft has employees from 157 different countries and that the company is like "the United Nations of information technology."

"And our company is not unique," he said. "Every company in our industry is like that. We have brought the world together. And it has put us in a position to forge perhaps almost a unique level of mutual understanding and respect for the needs of people around the planet. As we think about protecting the planet [and] as we think about addressing nation-state attacks, that is a powerful force that should inspire us and on which we can build."

Finally, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas.), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, delivered the most extensive remarks on the topic during his keynote address Tuesday. McCaul initially praised the executive order and then days later qualified that support; he also found himself at the center of the controversy after former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed he worked with McCaul as part of a commission to compose a "Muslim ban" for the Trump administration, which McCaul denied.

Before beginning his talk on nation-state cyberattacks Tuesday, McCaul tried to set the record straight regarding his views on immigration and Trump's executive order.

"This morning some of you are joining us from overseas, and for many others, you began your journey to America years ago," McCaul said. "I'm proud that our nation is a beacon of hope to people in all corners of the globe who seek to create, collaborate and innovate. Thank you."

"But in light of recent events in Washington, I know there is deep concern in this room about whether U.S. policies will continue to welcome that international talent. So let me say this, and we should never forget this: This is a country built by immigrants. This is a nation where the oppressed have long sought refuge, and our country is a magnet for creators and entrepreneurs who are willing to take risks and pursue their dreams. The United States must maintain that tradition, not only for our country's credibility but for the survival of liberty itself. That is why I will fight to ensure that America continues to extend an open hand to peaceful, freedom-loving people regardless of where they were born, regardless of how they worship and regardless of the color of their skin -- because that is who we are," he said, to audience applause. "And that is how we will attract the world's best thinkers to build a strong country and a more vibrant global economy."

McCaul also called for tech immigration reform, stressing the need for a "talented cybersecurity workforce on the front lines" and stating his support for H-1B visas.

"I believe America's doors must stay open to high-skilled workers who will contribute to our society and join us in building an innovation economy," he said, with the audience applauding. "And that is why I'm supporting efforts in Congress to streamline our H-1B visa process to make sure tech companies can get the right people from the right places at the right time."

While the conference itself saw no protests or disruptions regarding Trump's executive order, a pro-immigration rally occurred a few blocks away from the Moscone Center on Monday that reportedly included some RSA Conference attendees.

Find out what the cybersecurity skills shortage means for enterprise CISOs

Read what leaders in the open source cloud community think about the immigration ban

Discover how online recruitment software can boost tech hiring diversity

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RSA Conference speakers tackle tech immigration reform, travel ban - TechTarget

February 15, 2017 6:29 PM By Greg Argos

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) Immigrants in Philadelphia, and across the country, plan to walk off the job Thursday to prove a point to President Donald Trump.

It may be a little harder to find a place for lunch and it may be a little quieter at construction sites throughout the city because of a social media movement called A Day Without Immigrants.

The message for them tomorrow is were here for work, said Tamalex Restaurant owner David Pena.

The planned protests are nationwide, but Pena said he expects at least 20 shops in South Philly alone, which employ mostly immigrants, to close for the day.

I decided to close my business because we want to support all the people all the immigrant people, said Pena.

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From California to Philly, fliers are being shared online, urging both legal and undocumented immigrants to stay home, close their businesses and keep their children out of school.

All five employees at Tamalex will not work.

Im going to lose tomorrow between $3,500 to $4,000, said Pena.

Its all in an effort to show how important the immigrant community is to the local and national economy, with the hope of getting Trumps attention.

We want to let him know were not criminals. Were workers. We support our country, said Pena.

Some larger companies are also supporting this movement.

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Jose Garces, who owns restaurants in Philly, New Jersey, New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, said in a statement he supports the right for hospitality industry employees to have their voices heard.

We are in close communication with any employees who plan to participate Thursday and [we are] doing our best to mitigate against any potential impact to our guests experience. We will not take any adverse action with any employee who chooses to participate, said Garces.

However, not everyone is supporting the movement. Aldrick Gessa-Lang, a Cuban immigrant, believes the protest is misguided.

Its confusing the issue of illegal immigration with legal immigration, said Gessa-Lang.

She said the protests should be over immigration reform.

I think the movement should be to reform government as far as the immigration system itself because thats really what the issue is, said Gessa-Lang.

At least 800 immigrants are expected tonot show up for work Thursday in Philadelphia.

Greg Argos joined CBS 3s Eyewitness News team as a general assignment reporter in August, 2015. A New Jersey native who grew up in Dover, Delaware, Argos came to CBS 3 from KPHO-TV in Phoenix where he had been a reporter and back up anchor s...

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Immigrants Nationwide Plan To Walk Off Job To Prove Point To Trump - CBS Local

Just how much does the U.S. rely on immigrants? Americans are finding out.

In cities across the country, businesses closed their doors on Thursday to show support for the #DayWithoutImmigrants campaign. Spread on social media and messaging apps, the day aimed to make a point about the economic impact immigrants have on the U.S. labor force.

Foreign-born residents of the U.S. were asked to stay home from work or school and to refrain from shopping. Rallies and marches are taking place in Washington D.C., Chicago and Denver, as well as other cities.

Celebrity chef Jos Andrs, who was born in Spain, decided to close most of his eateries Thursday to observe the day.

"It seems immigrants, especially Latinos, it seems we are under attack," said Andrs. "It seems we are part of the American dream, but somehow it seems that America is not recognizing what we are doing."

The plan for the national "strike" spread over social media with #DayWithoutImmigrants trending on Twitter across the U.S. early Thursday.

Some restaurant chains announced plans to close, amid fears that many employees will not show up for work. In California's Bay Area, Chavez Supermarket closed all 10 of its businesses, while in New York's Staten Island the owners of Cafe Con Pon bakeries closed their three locations.

Even at the Pentagon, employees at food concessions including national chains like Sbarro's and Taco Bell said they would not be coming to work.

Saru Jayaraman, co-founder of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, an advocacy group for restaurant workers, issued a statement supporting the one-day boycott.

"Immigrants are the lifeblood of the restaurant industry," Jayaraman said. "At ROC, we honor the major contributions of immigrants in the restaurant industry an industry that employs perhaps more immigrants than any other in the U.S. We applaud and support restaurants and workers who, by participating the the Day Without Immigrants, affirm the dignity of workers. Furthermore, we call on all Americans to recognize the influence and importance of immigrants in our communities, economy and daily lives."

Hollywood captured a somewhat similar idea in the 2004 film "A Day Without A Mexican," in which all Mexicans in California disappear grinding the state to a halt and wreaking economic havoc. In protest of immigration reform proposals in 2006, a Great American Boycott was also organized for May Day.

Some social media users, however, suggested that Thursday would be an excellent time for people born in the United States to reclaim the jobs they say that immigrants have taken away.

This is not the first time that advocates for immigrants have tried to point out what they say is their value to the American economy. Advocates say immigrants often do work that other residents of the U.S. do not want to do.

Protesters gather at the Milwaukee County Courthouse during a rally against President Donald Trump's immigration policies on Monday. Darren Hauck / Getty Images

Cheap lettuce, for example, is said by supporters of immigrants to be available because of migrant farm workers. Chicken is affordable in super markets, advocates contend, because Mexicans and other immigrants work in chicken plants, sometimes in undesirable conditions.

The federal government has long acknowledged that a majority of farm workers in U.S. fields are undocumented.

This has been a theme advanced for many years by supporters of immigrants in the U.S., whether documented or undocumented. They contribute to the economy rather than harming it, advocates say.

More than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies have been founded by immigrants and their children, according to a Partnership for A New American economy.

Originally posted here:
#DayWithoutImmigrants: One-Day Strike Closes Businesses Around Country - NBCNews.com

This piece was updated after publication.

After a slow start, Silicon Valley has come out in full force against Donald Trumps immigration measures. Venture capitalists and CEOs tweeted offers to match their followers donations to the ACLU. Uber chief Travis Kalanick backed out of a role on a Trump advisory council due to customer outrage. More than 120 companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google, and Netflix, signed an amicus brief decrying the White Houses executive order temporarily banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. And all of these actions still feel like a prelude to something biggertech leaders are reportedly building an anti-Trump political coalition that will boost progressive candidates and causes.

This isnt the first time the tech sector has taken up immigration as a political cause. Silicon Valley has always been pro-immigration, but that stance was long born out of financial self-interest rather than principle. When Bill Gates was the face of the tech sector, he testified before Congress about the need for the United States to liberalize its H-1B visa program, which allows tech companies to recruit a limited number of highly skilled foreign workers every year. Mark Zuckerberg wanted this program expanded as well, but he also thought the industry should take a wider view of immigration and offer a dose of compassion for the millions of immigrants who wont be landing jobs in the Valley anytime soon. In 2013, he and a cadre of Silicon Valleys most powerful executives thought they could spearhead a bipartisan effort in Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, which would not only help them remain competitive with international firms but also provide a path to citizenship for millions of vulnerable U.S. residents. They were wrongbig timebut a look back at why their lobbying powerhouse, FWD.us, has failed to achieve its goals helps illuminate the tough battle ahead for tech companies in a deeply hostile political environment.

A really cynical view would be that theyre just interested in their own bottom line, Toms Jimnez, a sociology professor at Stanford University, says of FWD.us. That might be the main motivator, but I do think there is a larger Silicon Valley ethos that gets captured by FWD.us, which is we dont just want to do well, we want to do good.

The organization launched at a moment when the power of tech to do good seemed, to many of its most powerful magnates, boundless. The sentiment was captured in a 2013 New Yorker story about FWD.us and tech leaders assuredness that they could guideand perhaps one day replacetraditional government. Everyone in FWD.us hopes it will go beyond immigration, over time, LinkedIn and FWD.us cofounder Reid Hoffman told The New Yorker. But, as with an entrepreneurial startup, if we cant demonstrate that we can do something good about this problem, then what use are we to the other ones?

But FWD.us is not a disruptive startupits an organization that plays by Washingtons rules. It emerged at a politically opportune moment, when Republicans were still shell-shocked over how hard Latino voters had broken for Obama in the 2012 election. Its focus was on whipping up enough votes to quickly push an immigration bill through Congress. Instead of releasing ads championing reform, the group sponsored ads attacking Obamacare and celebrating the Keystone XL pipeline to appease the congressional Republicans who couldve been convinced to support such a bill. The gambit angered liberal special-interest groups, some of whom boycotted Facebook, and turned off Elon Musk, who called the efforts Realpolitik and pulled out of the effort. But FWD.us stuck by the strategy, which was conceived by political operatives from both the Democratic and Republican ranks. Were using a wide variety of tactics, some of which may ruffle some feathers, Chamath Palihapitiya, another cofounder of the group, told The New York Times, but we believe the passage of the bill will be worth it.

The bill died in 2014 as far-right conservatives seized more power in the House of Representatives. In 2016, the groups biggest backers threw their support behind an amicus brief supporting Barack Obamas legally contested executive order offering protections for 5 million undocumented immigrants. The plan was ultimately blocked after a Supreme Court deadlock. At the same time the courts were torpedoing Obamas plan, FWD.us was in the midst of a reported $10 million grassroots campaign to fight Donald Trumps anti-immigrant presidential run. That effort also failed. In terms of influencing legislative, executive, and judicial outcomes, thats three strikes for Zuckerbergs lobbying powerhouse.

Immigration experts stress that FWD.us has done a lot to bring immigration reform into the national spotlight and to link Silicon Valleys business interest in skilled workers with a moral imperative to help undocumented immigrants. Those who take a long view of the political landscape also point out that the organizations chances of quick governmental success were always slim. Since the turn of the century, reform efforts have stalled out no matter which party controlled the White House or Congress. Im not sure if we think of [FWD.us] as some special failure above and beyond the more general inability of any organization to get immigration reform passed at the federal level, says Deep Gulasekaram, a law professor at Cornell University specializing in immigration law. Whats happened since 2001 is immigration, much like many other national legislative topics, has become subject to the extreme polarization that you see in Congress.

Under President Hillary Clinton, FWD.us might have spent the year angling for another shot at courting congressional votes. (Voters are mobilizing and ready to use the ballot box to fight back against Donald Trumpand lay the groundwork for immigration reform in 2017, Todd Schulte, the groups president, wrote three days before the election.) Instead, the path forward is much more dire. Even as Trumps immigration ban is stuck in legal limbo, drafts of potential executive orders limiting H-1B visas and deporting undocumented immigrants who use social services have leaked. Reform may come, but not in the direction that groups like FWD.us had hoped. The strategy changes from trying to move things forward to actually trying to just prevent the worst from happening, which is a little bit different calculation, Jimnez says.

Schulte says Trumps threats to immigrants have galvanized more people to engage with the organization than ever before. Mobilizing people across the country to voice their concerns about U.S. immigration policy is a key focus for the organization. We want legislators to hear about this on a regular basis, he says. Are we disappointed that we havent yet passed immigration reform? Absolutely. Are we optimistic that in the years to come were going to be able to do that? Absolutely. The reason for that is the American people are on our side on this issue.

But with a GOP-controlled White House and Congress unlikely to be moved by pleas for mass legalization, Silicon Valley will have to adopt new tactics besides traditional federal lobbying. Hoffman and other tech leaders are reportedly planning to launch a new political organization tentatively called Win the Future, which will establish a platform to connect activists and help them crowdfund money for specific candidates and causes. FWD.us already has its own activist network, which extends to nine local chapters and has engaged more than 600,000 people to voice support for immigration reform. And states and cities are currently steeling themselves against Trumps immigrant crackdown in various ways. California, for example, has introduced legislation that would provide legal services to undocumented immigrants, while cities around the country are declaring themselves sanctuaries where immigrants wont be deported. The federal government sets overall immigration policy, but even within that general construct, states and localities have a lot to say and can seriously influence the direction of immigration policy, Gulasekaram says. If youre looking for actual legislative policy gains, I think thats the place where youre more likely to get them.

Solutions wont come easily, and given the Trump administrations with-them-or-against-them mind-set, its possible that immigration reform wont maintain its bipartisan appeal if GOP lawmakers align with the president. But if nothing else, FWD.us helped Silicon Valley articulate an inclusive political stance on this issue before it mutated into a full-blown crisis. So far, tech leaders seem to be following through on their word. This is an urgent issue, says Schulte, and if were going to fix one part of this immigration system, we need to fix all of it.

This piece was updated after publication to include comments from FWD.us president Todd Schulte and additional information about the groups activist network.

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The Rough Road to Immigration Reform - The Ringer (blog)

Jim Colbert,an apple and cherry grower in Chelan, Washington, made a case in The Seattle Times that if immigration reform is going forward, the needs of growers must be part of a package.

In his Feb. 14 essay, he argued:

Washington agriculture needs an immigration solution that allows access to workers willing and able to do seasonal farm work, which fewer American citizens wish to perform.

Enforcement of our immigration laws must be a part of this solution, but it must happen concurrently with guest worker and related reforms to ensure that crops do not go unpicked for lack of labor. And these reforms must work not just for large growers with the resources to navigate the complex and expensive H2-A program, but for small farmers as well. Such solutions are possible, and nationwide alliances such as the Agriculture Workforce Coalition (agworkforcecoalition.org) are working to bring them about.

Colbert ischairman of the board of directors of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association.

Colbert said debate over immigration policy has taken center-stage in Washington, D.C. Its worth considering the potential impacts of policy and enforcement changes on the economy of Washington State, particularly its rural communities. In Washington, agriculture and food processing is a $51 billion industry, supporting 160,000 jobs and generating $15 billion in exports.

He said the H-2A program needs an overhaul:

The H2-A program needs significant reform and cannot be viewed as a complete solution to agricultures labor needs. Not only is the program difficult to use without a dedicated expert on staff or the services of an outside consultant, the federal agencies charged with managing the program are also finding it difficult to process applications and border crossings in a timely manner. Sadly, far too many growers have had perishable crops ready for harvest only to find that their workers entry into the U.S. has been delayed by days or even weeks.

Read his complete essay here.

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A Washington grower says if immigration reform is coming, let's do it right - Good Fruit Grower