Credit: Zach Gibson, Getty Images
On Tuesday, President Trump and his administration announced that they would end the DACA program which allows undocumented youth brought to the United States as children to work and receive protection from deportation. Some major tech and gaming corporations have spoken out about DACA, including Madden and Sims studio Electronic Arts.
A spokesperson for EA told Kotaku that “EA does have a small number of DACA employees. We are working closely with them and intend to help in any way that we can.” This was on the heels of statements on Tuesday from Apple and Microsoft, which both stated that they would provide legal counsel for affected employees. There are nearly 800,000 people in America who had been protected by the DACA program.
EA has also signed an open letter to President Trump in support of DACA and its recipients. The letter states, “Dreamers are vital to the future of our companies and our economy. With them, we grow and create jobs. They are part of why we will continue to have a global competitive advantage.”
It additionally calls on Trump and members of Congress to approve legislation that will provide dreamers with a more permanent solution. Hundreds of companies, including tech giants such as Google and Amazon, have signed so far, though EA and Microsoft are among the only gaming companies on the list.
Kotaku’s parent company Univision also signed support for the letter to Trump.
We reached out to several other big gaming companies about their stance on DACA and whether they had affected employees. A Sony rep referred us to the game industry’s lobbying group, the Entertainment Software Association or ESA, which stated: “Our nation’s competitiveness depends on creating opportunities for all, including giving today’s Dreamers a chance to be among tomorrow’s innovators. Federal legislation to preserve DACA honours our American values and is sound policy from both an economic and humanitarian perspective.”
Representatives from Ubisoft, Activision, and Nintendo did not comment.
YouTubers such as David Dobrik (left) are DACA recipients.
In statements about DACA, many leaders and supporters have pointed out that people from all walks of life were helped by the program. That appears to include YouTubers like David Dobrik. Dobrik first rose to fame as a Vine star, and switched over to YouTube full-time once the platform was shut down. Dobrik was born in Slovakia, and moved to Chicago at a young age.
He tweeted, “I paid $US400,000 ($500,478) in taxes last year and all I got was a free trip back to Slovakia #DefendDACA.”
Other YouTubers have also joined in, including lifestyle YouTubers Daisy Marquez and Mawizaable, who posted a short documentary about undocumented youth on Monday.
According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, those enrolled in DACA can work until their permits expire.
Those whose benefits expire between September 5th and March 8th, 2018, can apply for two-year renewals as long as they send in their request by October 5th. Congress has a six month window of time to either save the program or enact other immigration related legislation.
If you are interested in supporting the DACA program, you can contact your state legislators.
Comments
14 responses to “EA Says It Will Try To Help Its Dreamer Employees”
Weird, Trump promised he’d look after DACA people during his campaign. It’s not like him to lie and turn his back on people he promised to support … wait
Something tells me this his next distraction to try and take peoples attention away from the Russia Investigation, just like his 3am tweet 2 months ago banning transgenders from the military
You mean that Russia investigation that’s already been proven in a court of law to be fake?
I hope EA gets fined for exploiting illegal immigrants.
Dude, these people are actually just real human beings, not some insidious group of evil come to destroy the world as we know it
They’re still criminals. The word “illegal” in “illegal immigrant” kinda gives that away. I know it wasn’t by their choice to go to America, but the least they could do is try to become a citizen. Don’t just live your entire life committing a crime just because you can get away with it.
It’s “illegal” because of a prejudice system set up by white people of power, not because there is something fundamentally wrong with people physically occupying a space. This world needs to learn that borders have always been artificially created for selfish reasons; we are all humans, living on the same planet, with the same want to just be happy.
Yeah, selfish reasons such as the security of your nation, the welfare of it’s people and the stability of your country. Letting in random people from anywhere in the world is a bad idea.
Seriously, when Trump said that most of the people coming in illegally are the worst. Murderers, drug traffickers, pedophiles, human traders, etc. And I’m not just talking about Mexico. These people come from ALL countries in the world. It’s only the regular, law-abiding citizens that legally immigrate to another country.
So how do you explain white illegal immigrants ALSO being illegal? No, there’s nothing wrong with people occupying space, however, illegal immigrants do more than just occupy space.
Everything you’re saying is bred out of a fear of the unknown, of something different to “your norm”. You’re idea stems from the assumption that everyone already inside a given space that is “meant to be there” are 100% “good”, and that those outside of that are 100% “bad”. Murderers, drug traffickers, pedophiles, human traders etc all exist already within the closed society you speak of; that doesn’t go away because “others” are sent out of the space.
Some people aren’t actually given the choice to “properly” immigrate due to a number of circumstances. For example, this article is talking about DREAMers; people who’ve spent sometimes decades living in the US, who entered the country when they were as young as 2yo, whose parents fled their homeland with literally nothing but the clothes on their backs due to a terrible environment and could not afford to immigrate “properly.” They’ve spent their whole lives not being able to become legal citizens because of a system that doesn’t allow it.
Judging someone you haven’t even met negatively is based in a pre-conceived notion of fear, prejudice. This is where the racism comes in – a bias built from the people around us, the stories we read and many other places. Racism can be outward hate (like the Charlottesville rally a few weeks back) but it can also be underlying, an internal bias that might not even seem like it is. For example, if you’ve ever heard someone say “I’m not racist, but..” then that statement probably is. That doesn’t mean that person is bad! It just means they need to think more, reflect on themselves, challenge themselves to grow past that bias. I’ll put my hand up and say I’ve been there, thought that way. It took some serious self-questioning to realize I still had a lot to learn. Still do!
We need to learn to break down these walls, not solidify them.
If you haven’t already, you should definitely check out this game: http://ncase.me/trust/ it’s playable in browser, only takes 20 mins ish and helps explain what I mean about prejudice and fear.
Good on EA, and all other game companies should follow suit. These people are exactly that, people. Fuck man, is there anyone who supports the DACA removal that isn’t racist?
There are people against immigration for economic and other reasons.
Just brandishing every one as racist not only over simplifies the situation but can hinder rational discussion.
Yes, there are people who support the DACA removal that aren’t racist. I’m not anti-Mexican immigrant, anti-canadian immigrant, anti-chine immigrat, etc. I’m anti-criminal. If you come to a country illegally, then you are a criminal. All criminals are scum that deserve no sympathy.
EA Says ANY THING TO SAVE IT FUCKED REP…. nice try but fuck off you swepshop
All illegal immigrants are criminals. I mean, it’s kinda implied in the name “illegal immigrant”. Why are people defending criminals? Oh, because “they’re people too!”? Would you defend a drug lord? I mean drug lords are people too. Would you defend a serial killer? I mean serial killers are people too.
Now, I know that this specific group of illegals did not come to America of their own will. Their parents brought them over. However, they’re adults now. They can act like adults and actually try to become documented. They can try to become citizens. They’ve had plenty of time to become citizens. So, instead of continuing living a life of crime just because they can get away with it, they really should have become a LEGAL immigrant. They’re adults now, so they can deal with adult punishments.