Why tech is so quiet on the California protests
With help from Alfred Ng and Anthony Adragna
The explosive immigration protests in California have become a national talking point, with politicians, celebrities and major interest groups all weighing in.
Notably missing is California's wealthiest industry — one with its own big stake in the immigration debate.
The biggest players in Silicon Valley have been sitting this one out, even as Waymo cars go up in flames in Los Angeles and protests spread to the Bay Area.
Tech companies rely heavily on foreign-born workers, and on high-skilled immigration in particular. And the industry was vocal in the immigration debate just six months ago, rallying for the H-1B and student visa pipelines that have reliably attracted talent to their workforces.
Tech figures even seemed cautiously optimistic that Donald Trump's administration might help them loosen some of the rules, with leaders like Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen trying to coax Trump into increasing visa numbers.
The LA protests, however — and the militarized government response — have radically shifted the immigration conversation in ways that make even a powerful industry hesitant to try to tamp things down.
Given the sharp divides in public opinion over the protests, and the deportations that sparked them, Big Tech is steering clear of a combustible situation. 'Anything that increases the tension around immigration will just make it harder for tech,' said Nu Wexler, a consultant who formerly worked in policy communications for Facebook and Google.
'In this culture of fear, I would be surprised if the large companies speak up,' he said.
DFD called around to see where the biggest companies stood. Meta declined to comment on the protests, referring DFD to its November 2022 statement promising support for laid-off employees on work visas. Google and Amazon declined to comment on the record. Microsoft and Apple did not respond to DFD's inquiries.
Trade associations restated their support for high-skilled immigration to DFD, while not directly touching on the clashes in LA. 'We need smart immigration policy,' said Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association. An analyst for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said that restricting high-skilled immigration 'would be a serious mistake.'
In one sense, the protests don't immediately implicate Silicon Valley. The ICE raids that sparked the uproar were reportedly targeting subsistence workers at Home Depot parking lots and car washes, as well as a 9-year-old LA elementary school student, not immigrants who came for STEM jobs.
But the industry has been dragged in anyway. Former Trump aide Steve Bannon explicitly called out Big Tech when lambasting the protests during his War Room podcast on Tuesday. 'You control who comes here as citizens,' he said. 'Silicon Valley doesn't want that … they're hiring everybody in the revolution of artificial intelligence, they're still bringing 135,000 H-1Bs because they detest American citizens.'
Bannon also came out swinging six months ago, when Musk started pushing on the issue — calling the H1-B program a 'total scam,' and Musk a billionaire 'toddler' solely focused on his own wealth. As POLITICO reported, then-incoming deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller was also working behind the scenes to slash visas for educated immigrants at the time.
The tech companies aren't just trying to avoid being slammed again, though — they also have other business to worry about. As one observer put it, they don't want to alienate Republicans who can help pass favorable tax laws and ease up costly tariffs.
'High-skilled immigration never really ranks as a number one priority for any of them,' said an industry insider who asked not to be named due to consulting work with several major companies. 'It doesn't impact quarterly earnings, unlike the other issues.'
They might not be able to sit it out forever, though. Rallies against ICE cropped up in San Francisco last weekend, with police arresting participants by Sunday. The nationwide No Kings protests against Trump set for the upcoming weekend are reportedly expected to attract thousands of people to the Bay Area.
Wexler also thinks that certain developments in Washington could force big tech companies to get involved, noting that a policy change seriously impacting their workforces could 'push companies out of their comfort zone.'
Macron's smartphone ban challenge
French President Emanuel Macron is facing a host of legal, technical and lobbying challenges as he seeks to ban social media for children under 15, POLITICO's Eliza Gkritsi, Ellen O'Regan, Émile Marzolf and Klara Durand report.
Macon is pushing for an EU-wide age verification law, but is threatening to go it alone if Brussels balks. 'I'm giving us a few months to achieve European mobilization. Otherwise, I will negotiate with the Europeans so that we can do it ourselves in France,' Macon said earlier this week.
There's also the matter of who should verify the age of online users. Different wings of the tech industry — especially in the United States — have clashed over who should be responsible for checking the ages of internet users.
Then there's the battle with the porn industry, which must verify users' ages under a new French law. That prompted the owner of Pornhub, Redtube and YouPorn to stop serving porn in France earlier in June.
Trump's take on Obama 'Hope' poster
The White House's Instagram account is making posters of alleged criminals that play off former President Barack Obama's iconic 'Hope' poster from his 2008 campaign.
It has made five posts in this style since May, the first of which labeled Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a member of the MS-13 gang, with an Obama logo on his shoulder. Its most recent post was a wanted poster for a man accused of assaulting federal officers in Los Angeles.
The White House did not confirm or deny whether it is using AI to generate the images.
The wanted posters aren't just needling Obama, perhaps Trump's greatest political foil — they're knocking off the aesthetic of artist Shepard Fairey, whose anti-authoritarian street-art roots gave the posters their cachet in the first place.
Asked about the use of Obama's campaign imagery, Trump spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the posters were designed to associate Democrats with 'rioters and criminal illegal aliens.'
'The White House is always looking for creative, eye-catching ways to highlight the important work the Trump Administration is doing,' said Jackson.
DFD also reached out to Fairey, who replied that the Trump administration's posts are the opposite of his original work's intent.
'Trump may be emulating my style, but we couldn't be more different on substance,' he said.
post of the day
THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS
Stay in touch with the whole team: Aaron Mak (amak@politico.com); Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@politico.com); Steve Heuser (sheuser@politico.com); Nate Robson (nrobson@politico.com); and Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@politico.com).
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Exclusive: Trump's tariff deal ‘quietly' added 10% raise which nobody is complaining about anymore, says his former commerce secretary
Wilbur Ross, former Commerce Secretary and a key architect of Trump's first-term trade policy, describes Trump's current tariff strategy as a deliberate evolution: moving faster, hitting harder, and using broader executive powers to impose tariffs for both economic and diplomatic leverage. The Trump administration's use of tariffs has sparked debate over the ultimate goals of its economic strategy. However, a former Cabinet member and key trade advisor to the President has suggested there is an underlying logic to the approach. Since winning the Oval Office, President Trump has announced an evolving range of policies. with economic sanctions spinning higher on some trade partners while others have been granted pauses. Many of the announcements have not come through official White House channels; for example, Trump threatened a 50% tariff on the EU in April in a bid to get European negotiators to the table—by posting on his social media site, Truth Social. Indeed, Trump has come under scrutiny from Beijing, arguably the most critical region for the U.S. to make a deal, who claim America's tariff tactics have been 'coercion and blackmail' when instead it should 'convey information to the Chinese side…through relevant parties.' But Wilbur Ross, Trump's Commerce Secretary in his first administration, says there's a clear tactic at play beneath Trump's bluster. The 87-year-old banker turned D.C. power player said there is an 'art' to Trump's dealmaking, as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has suggested; Ross told Fortune in an exclusive interview: 'Well, everybody's reaction to [tariffs] was first shock and amazement, but the actual retaliatory measures that they put in were fairly modest—even China didn't match in dollar for dollar. 'There's a real reason for that, I think the other countries, as they've thought about it, have recognized that while they have to talk very bravely for their domestic political constituencies… They also recognize that at the end of the day, they can't afford a tit-for-tat escalating trade war with us.' And this was a fact Trump was relying on, continued Ross: 'One of the earliest things he put in was that 10% tariff on everything from everywhere. 'Nobody is even complaining about that anymore. When you think about it, in the normal course, getting quietly to do a 10% tariff on everything from everywhere was a huge achievement, even if he didn't get anything else. But because he followed it with these much more extreme things, it makes the 10% look like it's not such a big bother. 'But it's a huge number, and he's been collecting it every day.' Indeed, imported goods alone into the U.S. in 2024 stood at $3.36 trillion—even before tax, duties, and levies were collected (worth $82 billion) and before imported services are added to those figures. Even 10% of near-$3.4 trillion is an eye-watering sum to add to federal budgets, though some items like autos and steel are even higher. Indeed nations like China, Canada, and Mexico are all already subject to more than the baseline 10% universal tariff. When Ross spoke to Fortune in a previous exclusive interview earlier this year, he said President Trump would be all the more confident in his second term because he now better understands the inner workings of Washington, D.C., and has a stronger mandate courtesy of a solid election sweep. And President Trump's tactics, which have included everything from threatening a 25% hike on Apple's iPhones specifically to raising sanctions to more than 150% on China at some points, reflect the path Ross expected. After all, as Secretary, Ross was one of the key allies in Trump's team when renegotiating America's position on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). At the time, Trump was a fierce critic of the deal with Mexico and Canada and wanted to withdraw from the agreement and begin negotiating from there. Ross felt the better tactic was to threaten such action and keep an exit as a last resort, an opinion that Trump eventually came around to agreeing with. Likewise, having been appointed in 2017 Ross oversaw the tariff action in the first Trump administration which included sanctions on Chinese goods as well as aluminum and steel more widely. 'He has started out on a much more adventurous path than last time,' Ross told Fortune this week. 'Broader in scope and more extreme in terms of the numbers themselves.' Trump has three objectives, he adds: shrinking trade deficits, producing revenue to offset his 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' and achieving other diplomatic purposes such as the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. and global defense spending. 'He has a much more fulsome, much more complicated agenda than before,' Ross explains. 'It's also different in…that last time I was very careful to set the groundwork to do public hearings, stakeholder meetings, to do written reports, to set a whole record so that under the Administrative Procedures Act we would be relatively safe from people trying to knock it out in court. 'This time, they did a very different thing. They went in mostly just by his say so using the IFA, the Emergency Powers Act, and they ran into a snag at the Court for International Trade.' This snag may alter the course of tariff reaction on the account of businesses, he added, because their investment timelines may shift based on when the tariffs are legally approved. But Ross added: 'Most people are operating under the assumption that sooner or later, he'll get something like what he was looking for…and therefore, while it's slowed down a bit, [I] don't think it will derail [trade talks] because [foreign governments] also know there are other ways he could punish them rather than just the tariffs. 'So it's a bump in the road, but I don't think it's a huge pothole that would wreck the car.' This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Oil prices jump after Israel's attack on Iran and it could lead to higher gas costs
Oil prices have jumped following Israel's attack on Iran as experts warn the conflict could lead to higher gas costs. The price of a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude jumped 6.8 percent to $72.65 Friday. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 7.1 percent to $74.30 a barrel. 'Gas prices will likely start to rise across much of the country later this evening in response to Israel's attacks on Iran, which have caused oil prices to surge. For now, I expect the rise to be noticable, but limited. Approx 10-25c/gal thus far, but this could change,' industry expert Patrick De Haan wrote on X. Iran is one of the world's major producers of oil and if a wider war escalates, it could slow the flow of Iranian oil to U.S. customers and elsewhere. 'Iran knows full well that Trump is focused on lower energy prices and actions by Iran that impact Middle East supply and consequently raise oil prices damage Trump politically,' Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates consulting firm, told CNN. Past attacks involving Iran and Israel have seen prices for oil spike initially, only to fall later 'once it became clear that the situation was not escalating and there was no impact on oil supply,' said Richard Joswick, head of near-term oil at S&P Global Commodity Insights. The Secretary of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries warned industry executives not to 'raise false alarms.' 'There are currently no developments in supply or market dynamics that warrant unnecessary measures,' the organization said on X. Israel said 200 fighter jets took part in strikes on more than 100 targets in Iran overnight in an escalation that threatens to spark a wider conflict in the Middle East. Israel said Iran has launched more than 100 drones towards Israel in response - but Tehran has denied these reports, according to Iranian media. Trump firmly put the U.S. in Israel's corner after the attacks. The president said he'd given Tehran 'chance after chance to make a deal' that would have headed off the strikes by putting restrictions on the country's nuclear weapons program and complained that Iranian negotiators had never been able to come to an agreement. 'I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to 'just do it,' but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn't get it done,' he wrote on Truth Social. Trump also said he'd warned Iran that Israel 'has a lot' of American-made military hardware — 'the best and most lethal' — and is quite proficient in using it. 'Certain Iranian hardliner's spoke bravely, but they didn't know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!' he added. 'Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,' the president wrote. The Associated Press contributed reporting Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Wall Street Journal
21 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
If Not Washington, Who Will Fund Harvard?
Jason Riley describes how Harvard has become a punching bag for political grandstanding ('Does the President Want to Fix Harvard or Destroy It?,'Upward Mobility, May 28). Yet the Trump administration swings at its peril. Harvard isn't a delicate orchid that will fold under political heat. It's a $53 billion juggernaut with labs, patents and partnerships that span the globe. If Washington starts revoking grants, threatening tax status or chilling academic freedom to score points with the base, Harvard isn't going to sit tight until President Trump is over. It's going to pivot—aggressively. Someone else, be it Berlin, Seoul or Abu Dhabi, will fund it. The idea that the greatest minds in medicine, energy and artificial intelligence will suddenly transfer their breakthroughs to a U.S. government-licensed trade school is laughable. In a century where data, biotech and artificial intelligence are the new oil, dismantling our own research powerhouse is like banning railroads in 1900 because the engineers read Karl Marx.
