Mark Zuckerberg asks Facebook users to donate to help migrant families: 'We need to end this policy right now'
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is asking Facebook users to donate to help migrant families affect by Trump's immigration policies.
- The White House's "zero tolerance" approach has led to thousands of children being separated from their families, prompting widespread outrage.
- In a Facebook post, the 34-year-old CEO wrote: "We need to stop this policy right now."
- Other figures in the tech industry are also speaking up, with Apple CEO Tim Cook calling the measures "inhumane."
Mark Zuckerberg is calling on Facebook users to donate to groups helping migrant families at the US border and has condemned the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant families, writing: "We need to stop this policy right now."
On Tuesday, the 34-year-old Facebook CEO put out a call on his public Facebook page requesting donations to the Texas Civil Rights Project and The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), two non-profit organizations based in Texas that provide immigration legal services. He also confirmed he had donated to them himself.
As of writing, his appeal has prompted more than $10,000 in donations from Facebook users, and that number is continuing to rise.
His actions come on the heels of widespread outrage over the separation of migrant children from their parents by US immigration officials, with media reports and recordings showing children detained in cages and crying for their families.
The separations are the result of a Trump administration "zero tolerance" policy on immigration.
Politico earlier reported that Zuckerberg and his top lieutenant, COO Sheryl Sandberg, had donated to a fundraiser for RAICES that was created by two former Facebook employees.
Over the last four days, that fundraiser has raised more than $4.8 million from nearly 119,000 donors, according to its Facebook page. It's not clear how much Zuckerberg and Sandberg personally donated, and a Facebook spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
Other high-profile figures in the tech industry are also speaking out against the Trump administration's immigration policy, including Apple CEO Tim Cook.
"It's heartbreaking to see the images and hear the sounds of the kids," Cook said in a recent interview. "Kids are the most vulnerable people in any society. I think that what's happening is inhumane, it needs to stop."
And Jeff Lawson, CEO of enterprise tech company Twilio, wrote an editorial decrying the policy as a "war crime." He wrote: "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."