Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote in a blog post that Microsoft plans to defend the 39 employees that the companies knows to be beneficiaries of DACA. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Microsoft says protections for Dreamers more important than tax reform

Microsoft says Congress should make passing legislation to protect Dreamers its top priority — even above tax reform — after the Trump administration announced Tuesday it's unwinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

"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.


Smith said all companies must also be prepared should Congress not step in to replace the Obama-era program, which provides leniency to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. He wrote that Microsoft plans to defend the 39 employees that the companies knows to be beneficiaries of the program — an increase from the 27 employees Microsoft disclosed last week.

"If Congress fails to act, our company will exercise its legal rights properly to help protect our employees," he wrote. "If the government seeks to deport any one of them, we will provide and pay for their legal counsel."

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Other tech firms are also turning their attention to Congress. Google urged lawmakers to act in a statement Tuesday.

"The DACA program has provided critical protections to hundreds of thousands of individuals, including Google employees and their families, allowing them to continue to make important contributions to our country, society, and economy," said Google spokeswoman Riva Sciuto. "We are disappointed in today’s decision to end the program and urge Congress to take quick action to enact a permanent legislative solution.”

