The stinging statements are the latest sign that executives from top U.S. companies are rethinking their cautious engagement with President Donald Trump. | Evan Vucci/AP DACA move deepens CEO split with Trump

President Donald Trump's decision to end the Dreamers program is inflaming his rift with America's corporate leaders — a group he once touted as a key ally for his business-friendly administration.

Within minutes of the administration's announcement that it will revoke protections for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, a slew of top CEOs and business groups slammed the move — warning of the human toll and its impact on the nation's economy.


"This is a sad day for our country. The decision to end DACA is not just wrong," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote. "It is particularly cruel to offer young people the American Dream, encourage them to come out of the shadows and trust our government, and then punish them for it."

“We should do everything in our power to continue to attract the best and brightest because they make us stronger as a people and as an economy," JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said. "And, when people come here to learn, work hard and give back to their communities, we should allow them to stay in the United States."

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The stinging statements are the latest sign that executives from top U.S. companies are rethinking their cautious engagement with Trump, who has promised deregulation policies favorable to business but has grown increasingly toxic on other issues that matter greatly to CEOs and their employees. And it complicates their relationship just as both sides need each other to push for their biggest shared goal: lowering corporate taxes.

Trump began meeting with executives at Trump Tower in New York in the weeks leading up to his inauguration, talking up how his administration would be favorable to corporate America. After one-on-one meetings and industry roundtables with the then-president-elect, many business leaders expressed optimism that Trump, despite his unpredictable leadership style, would be good for the economy.

That continued into the early days of his administration as Trump again assembled CEOs, this time at the White House. He established two business advisory councils — one on manufacturing and another on policy — to solicit direct input from the heads of IBM, Pepsi, General Electric and many others from America’s biggest corporations.

But a series of political and policy decisions have damaged their relationship. After Trump's reaction to racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month, in which he put equal blame on white supremacists and counter-protesters, so many CEOs fled the business advisory councils that the president decided to fold them altogether. He also angered many business leaders in June after withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, putting U.S. environmental policy at odds with nearly every other country.

The DACA cancellation is unique in that it runs contrary to many companies' stated values of economic opportunity and entrepreneurship and has the potential to directly affect some of their own employees. Apple CEO Tim Cook, for example, has said his company has 250 employees who are authorized to work under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

"Individuals enrolled in good faith and became ingrained in our communities and the nation’s economy," said Neil Bradley, chief policy officer of the the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "To reverse course now and deport these individuals is contrary to fundamental American principles and the best interests of our country."

General Motors said it "stands with the Dreamers we employ and the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers employed by multiple companies across the U.S.," adding, "Protecting American companies’ access to talented workers from outside of the U.S. is an important component for our global competitiveness and our success in the U.S."

As CEOs have exhausted the limits of their influence with Trump and the distance they can keep from his policy pronouncements, many are turning their attention to the Republican-controlled Congress. That's especially true on DACA, where Trump gave lawmakers six months to craft a legislative solution before the program is shuttered.

Many executives urged people to contact their members of Congress, with Zuckerberg saying, "No bill is perfect, but inaction now is unacceptable." Microsoft said Tuesday that Congress should make passing legislation to protect Dreamers its top priority — even above tax reform.

"We say this even though Microsoft, like many other companies, cares greatly about modernizing the tax system and making it fairer and more competitive. But we need to put the humanitarian needs of these 800,000 people on the legislative calendar before a tax bill," Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote in a blog post.

Hotel chain Marriott called on lawmakers to "urgently pass the DREAM Act or other legislation to provide the certainty and permanent solution that DACA individuals deserve to remain valuable contributors to our society and economy."

The pressure on Congress to act comes as lawmakers grapple with the debt ceiling, federal budget, hurricane relief and tax reform. That's a heavy legislative agenda to tackle between now and the end of the year, even before DACA was added to the list. Adding to the uncertainty, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that Trump won’t settle for “just a one-piece fix” on immigration reform, suggesting the president would refuse to sign a standalone bill on DACA.

Immigration is a particularly urgent topic for the tech industry, which has long pushed to expand visa programs for immigrants with in-demand technical skills. Many of Silicon Valley's biggest players have at least one immigrant co-founder, and rely on men and women born overseas to fill their engineering and research ranks.

New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, whose family fled Iran as a child, dedicated his first tweet since officially assuming his new post Tuesday to condemn the DACA decision.

"It's against our values to turn our backs on #DREAMers," he tweeted. "Everyone deserves a chance to work, study and contribute — the #AmericanDream!"

Nolan McCaskill contributed to this report.