The corporate rage against President Trump’s controversial immigration ban is being led by the nation’s technology companies, but nearly every business in the Chicago area and elsewhere has a stake in this melee.
Right now, a legal dispute is underway that’s challenging the president’s broadly written Jan. 27 executive order on immigration, which includes barring travelers from seven mostly Muslim countries.
On Thursday, a three-judge appellate court panel knocked Trump back on his heels when it refused to reinstate his travel ban on those countries. On Twitter, the president vowed "SEE YOU IN COURT," which is assumed to mean the Supreme Court but could also mean the full 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
With executive order, Trump makes rookie managerial mistake Robert Reed
President Donald Trump, who took office claiming to be among the world’s most experienced and savvy business executives, made a rookie managerial mistake when he issued an executive order Friday temporarily suspending entry of refugees into the U.S.
While doggedly determined to keep his campaign…
President Donald Trump, who took office claiming to be among the world’s most experienced and savvy business executives, made a rookie managerial mistake when he issued an executive order Friday temporarily suspending entry of refugees into the U.S.
While doggedly determined to keep his campaign…
(Robert Reed)
Hopefully, the judiciary will trash the Trump ban, and his administration will go back to the drawing board to draft more realistic, targeted and functional plans for improving security at the nation’s borders.
A reboot can’t come too soon.
The presidential initiative — despite the appellate panel’s action — remains capable of creating untold uncertainty, damage and disruption to businesses of all sizes and types. That’s especially true when it comes to attracting, retaining or assisting employees who are immigrants, members of immigrant families or friends of immigrants.
In an unusual sign of corporate ire, more than 120 companies, mostly from the tech sector, signed a legal brief urging the Court of Appeals to uphold the suspension of the immigration ban sought by Washington and Minnesota.
Those states argued Trump’s action was damaging their businesses and residents. Household names like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Netflix and Facebook signed a legal "friend of the court" brief arguing against Trump’s executive order and advocating it remain in limbo.
For too many neighborhood businesses, bank loans are hard to get Robert Reed
When it comes to obtaining small-business loans, especially among minority-owned firms, too many Chicago-area entrepreneurs are getting a cold shoulder from the banks.
That’s one of the troubling discoveries from a new report on lending patterns by the Woodstock Institute, a locally based nonprofit…
When it comes to obtaining small-business loans, especially among minority-owned firms, too many Chicago-area entrepreneurs are getting a cold shoulder from the banks.
That’s one of the troubling discoveries from a new report on lending patterns by the Woodstock Institute, a locally based nonprofit…
(Robert Reed)
Tech companies, in particular, make the case that the ban is so onerous because its hurts their ability to be global enterprises and cultivate multicultural workforces from around the world.
If ultimately upheld, the Trump travel ban will make it extremely difficult to hire or retain immigrant employees, who may choose to leave the country to see family or friends or who work overseas but are required to occasionally be in the U.S.
"(The order) is inflicting substantial harm on U.S. companies. It hinders the ability of American companies to attract great talent; increases costs imposed on business; makes it more difficult for American firms to compete in the international marketplace," asserts the amicus brief filed this week in the San Francisco-based appellate court.
Many of the companies supporting the appellate court brief have a significant product and marketplace presence in the Chicago area. However, no Chicago area-based companies signed the letter. Lawyers who filed the brief with the court declined to say if any Rust Belt or Chicago-area businesses were approached.
Nevertheless, Trump’s plan has forced large Midwest-based companies such as the giant automakers to reassert their commitment to doing business beyond national borders.
Suburbs vs. city: Who will win the wooing contest for Caterpillar’s headquarters? Robert Reed
It’s on: Suburbs versus the city.
That’s among the area’s oldest economic development matchups and, right now, an interesting contest is shaping up over who is going to win the headquarters of massive manufacturer Caterpillar, which last week said it was leaving longtime home Peoria for the “Chicago…
It’s on: Suburbs versus the city.
That’s among the area’s oldest economic development matchups and, right now, an interesting contest is shaping up over who is going to win the headquarters of massive manufacturer Caterpillar, which last week said it was leaving longtime home Peoria for the “Chicago…
(Robert Reed)
"Our focus on this has been very much on our employees and internally oriented, to make sure that they understand our message on (the) importance of diversity and everything else related to this topic," General Motors President Dan Ammann said Thursday during a meeting with the Tribune’s editorial board.
By the way, Ammann is a native of New Zealand.
The mess and confusion brought on by Trump’s immigration broadside is being felt locally, too.
Chicago-area health care centers, for example, are coping with uncertainty over travel restrictions, particularly when connecting with overseas medical students who are candidates for domestic doctor residency programs.
Some students fear they will not be allowed to enter the country, while others may prefer to go somewhere more welcoming than the U.S., say health care experts.
In Trump era, a call for corporate board diversity Robert Reed
A new report is out and it chronicles one of corporate America’s oldest epic fails: An inability to fill major corporate boards with more women and minorities — the very groups that are increasingly becoming consumer, commercial and social powerhouses.
As the Tribune reported this week, the nation’s…
A new report is out and it chronicles one of corporate America’s oldest epic fails: An inability to fill major corporate boards with more women and minorities — the very groups that are increasingly becoming consumer, commercial and social powerhouses.
As the Tribune reported this week, the nation’s…
(Robert Reed)
Meanwhile, the area’s small-business owners are jittery.
Neighborhood restaurants, service shops and light manufacturing plants — traditionally first-time employers of immigrant labor — fret that their businesses and workers will be more aggressively targeted or raided by immigration authorities.
In addition to banning travel to the U.S. by citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries, Trump’s executive order suspended all refugee admissions for 120 days and put an indefinite hold on Syrian refugees.
It would be a relief if cooler heads prevailed and a more measured immigration policy emerged from the Trump White House.
But that’s unlikely.
So business better get ready to rumble.
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