Twilio CEO calls Trump's policy to separate families at the border 'a war crime'

Flickr/Twilio

Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson

• As outrage in the nation rises, Silicon Valley executives are issuing public statements condemning the Trump Administration's policy of separating children from their parents at the US-Mexico border.
• One such CEO, Twilio founder Jeff Lawson, has done more than tweet a statement.
• He has written an editorial that argues these actions are 'war crimes.'
• And he's urging people who want to see this policy end to engage in a series of actions to put pressure on the administration to do so.

Jeff Lawson, the founder CEO of cloud communication company Twilio, one Silicon Valley's classic success stories, has written a scathing editorial. In it, he denounced the Trump Administration's immigration policy that separates children from their parents at the US/Mexico border as a "war crime."

He writes:

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Intentionally separating families is objectively wrong, and we must fight it vigorously. No matter what excuses are made, let's call this what it is: collective punishment. The practice of punishing family members is not just morally offensive, it's also a war crime under the Geneva Accord. We are punishing children for the possibility that their parents have committed a minor crime (a misdemeanor actually), or no crime at all - in the case of amnesty seekers. We are terrorizing people with a horror greater than losing your own life: losing your child.

Lawson also includes a call to action, highlighting a planned million-person march against one of the facilities, a former Walmart. He urges citizens to contact their Congressional representatives and demand they support the legislation that would outlaw this practice, the Keep Families Together Act, which was sponsored by all the Senate Democrats and therefore shunned by Senate Republicans. (He plugged a website called  ResistBot which guides a person through contacting a representative.) And he suggested that people donate to organizations fighting against severe immigration policies including a legal center for immigrants in Texas called RAICES, The ACLU, and Catholic Charities of Houston.

Under the Trump administration, nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their parents because of this policy in the first six weeks it was in place, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.

Public outrage has been brewing about it for weeks on both sides of the aisle. This includes an editorial published on the weekend from First Lady Laura Bush calling the policy "cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart."

Lawson is among the wave of Silicon Valley executives who have begun to speak out against the policy. Such statements from CEOs are more than just showboating.

Tech companies who have been selling their products and services to ICE have been coming under the gun by advocates. Microsoft, for instance, came under gun and calls for a boycott for its work with ICE, although the company also formally denounced the child separation policy.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Saturday denied this policy exists saying "We do not have a policy of separating families at the border." The Trump Administration says its action reflect its "zero tolerance" for people who cross the southern border illegally.