Tech world decries Trump’s immigration plan

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With help from Cristiano Lima, John Hendel and Leah Nylen

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Quick Fix

— Immigration policy pushback: The tech world is warning that President Donald Trump’s plan to temporarily suspend some immigration into the U.S. could deal a blow to the internet industry that has been central to the war on the coronavirus.

— Telecom relief, present and future: The FCC has started doling out cash to the next round of health care recipients in the $200 million Covid 19 Telehealth Program, and Trump said broadband will be a priority in an upcoming fourth phase of coronavirus relief.

— Dishing on DISH: Federal enforcers’ plans for DISH were central to the approval of the T-Mobile-Sprint megamerger (which finally wrapped last week) — but a lead litigator on the case said the pandemic has upended that remedy.

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Tech of the Town

TECH REBUFFS TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION HALT — Tech industry leaders are speaking out against Trump’s plan to temporarily stop some immigration into the U.S., which groups say would harm the internet industry at a time when it’s more vital than ever. The plan, which could be signed as soon as today, would block for 60 days (but possibly more) most people from receiving a permanent residency visa, or green card, in the U.S., POLITICO reports — though it notably will include exemptions for essential employees and temporary foreign workers. Recent CISA guidance on essential workers includes many from the information and communications technology field, and the sector has been rallying for a larger swath of the tech industry to be deemed “essential” to coronavirus response efforts. But it’s still unclear how the final order will directly affect the industry.

— “We are very concerned about the negative impact this order would have on the U.S. economy,” TechNet CEO Linda Moore, whose trade association counts companies such as Apple and Google as members, said in a statement. Jason Oxman, president of fellow tech trade group ITI, said tech workers “will be vital to the U.S. economic recovery and must remain part of the workforce.” He added, “We urge President Trump not to endanger the country’s economic recovery by closing its economy to the rest of the world.”

— Motivations under the microscope: The president has framed the move as part of the administration’s pandemic relief efforts, but one think tank chief said the claim doesn’t pass the smell test. “It really has nothing to do, I would argue, with it,” Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, told Cristiano. “The administration in my view is using the pandemic as an excuse … to expand their anti-immigrant policies.” The ITIF chief also called for the administration to consider an exemption for high-skilled tech workers, like the one farm workers secured.

STIMULUS TELEHEALTH CASH FLOWS — The FCC on Tuesday announced the second round of grant recipients as part of its $200 million Covid-19 Telehealth Program, quickly assembled after Congress passed its most recent coronavirus relief package. The FCC is now vetting and doling out this cash on a rolling basis. So far, $6.94 million has gone out to help 11 health care providers across eight states including New York and Michigan, leaving plenty left. The FCC has also waived a rule to allow providers with delinquent FCC debt to still seek cash.

TRUMP TARGETS BROADBAND FOR COVID NEGOTIATIONS — Trump on Tuesday tweeted that broadband internet will be one of his own priorities in hashing out an upcoming fourth phase of coronavirus relief. (The Senate subsequently passed a $484 billion plan that still needs to go to the House.) The administration’s big priorities include “broadband for the Middle West,” Trump later told reporters during his evening news briefing, adding that “the farmers have been treated terribly when it comes to the internet.”

Expect a lot on the table, as John reported for Pros early this month.

— Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday introduced legislation to create a $2 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund at the FCC, part of her plans to help students purchase Wi-Fi hotspots, modems, routers and other devices to stay online during the pandemic. “I urge my colleagues to support my bill and ensure it is included in the next coronavirus relief package,” the House appropriator said. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) pledged to file companion legislation in his chamber.

— Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) also promised to fight for billions of connectivity dollars he had hoped to secure in the first coronavirus stimulus measure. “Top of the list,” the Senate appropriator said during a roundtable call on Tuesday. Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel suggested that more resources could be devoted to bolster the commission’s broadband mapping efforts, a priority that aligns with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s request for money to implement a recent broadband mapping law. “Give us some deadlines, some timelines and more funding to make it happen,” Rosenworcel said during Tuesday’s call with Van Hollen.

FTC’s PHILLIPS WEIGHS IN ON APPLE-GOOGLE CONTACT-TRACING — The FTC hasn’t offered any public comments on the proposed Bluetooth contact-tracing initiative by Google and Apple — but Republican Commissioner Noah Phillips said he is “quite interested” in learning more. Speaking on a call Tuesday hosted by the Federalist Society, Phillips said the FTC would look at the project in the same way it considers all cases that involve potential privacy or cybersecurity concerns.

— Google and Apple have said the contact-tracing programs will only store data on an individual’s phone for 14 days. “There isn’t a generalized obligation to delete data once it’s been used,” Phillips said in response to a question about that aspect of the project. “That’s a practice some companies engage in; it’s a practice some companies don’t. I don’t think that, right now, our job should be imposing obligations that the law doesn’t apply to companies.”

CORONAVIRUS ‘UPENDS’ DOJ’S DISH REMEDY — The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a wrench into the remedy federal enforcers worked out with satellite television provider DISH Networks when they approved the T-Mobile-Sprint megamerger, said Paula Blizzard, who was California’s lead litigator in opposing the deal. The problem: DISH promised to become a fourth national player by building out a new 5G wireless network within two years — but the state of capital markets make that a difficult proposition. And the carriers these days are all working together, not competing for customers.

— “As soon as the virus hit, DISH entered collaborative agreements with the other carriers to share all its spectrum and increase their capacity,” said Blizzard, a deputy attorney general, in comments at an American Bar Association event Tuesday. “It kind of upends the remedy the U.S. DOJ got, in some ways, because DISH was supposed to be a new fourth competitor and what it has done is instantly collaborated with everybody else.”

— Blizzard said she wasn’t criticizing the FCC’s decision to allow the spectrum-sharing during the pandemic, but she asked: “How do you stop it later? How do you go back to the competitive world? How do you get all that spectrum, which is now on all those cell towers deployed across the country, back out into the hands of DISH to make a remedy?”

ROTENBERG OUT AT EPIC — In a stunning move for the world of D.C. privacy advocacy, the Electronic Privacy Information Center announced the departure of Marc Rotenberg as leader of the group he had co-founded in 1994. As Cristiano wrote on Tuesday, the action came just five days after Protocol reported that Rotenberg had outraged much of EPIC’s staff by continuing to come to work despite being advised by a doctor to take a test for Covid-19. (He subsequently tested positive, said Protocol, which filed this report on his departure.)

— Alan Butler, EPIC’s general counsel, “will serve as interim executive director while the international search for Mr. Rotenberg’s permanent replacement is underway,” the group said, adding that “Marc has contributed tremendously as a scholar and advocate to a powerful global movement in support of privacy, freedom of expression, and democratic values.”

— “The news came as a surprise to me!” Rotenberg told Cristiano when asked for comment. “You should perhaps contact someone on the EPIC Board of Directors regarding the decision.”

Transitions

Trump announced plans to appoint Abraham Loeb, a science professor at Harvard, and Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and four members (including Dario Gil, director of IBM Research) to the National Science Board.

The risk and governance advisory board for Starling, an applied behavioral sciences technology company, announced several appointments to the board, including Gary Cohn, former director of the U.S. National Economic Council and previously president and COO of Goldman Sachs; Siew Kai Choy, former managing director at Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC; and Mark Cooke, chairman of ORX, the financial services industry association for operational risk management.

Silicon Valley Must-Reads

2020 chatter: “Joe Biden’s campaign leadership is clashing over the future of its digital operation — a rift that comes as campaigning has moved largely online and as Biden faces a yawning deficit against Donald Trump’s massive digital operation,” POLITICO reports.

Podcast OTD: Playbook co-author Anna Palmer’s latest conversation on the Women Rule podcast is with Fidji Simo, head of the Facebook app who reports directly to Mark Zuckerberg, on how the company is shifting resources during the pandemic. Subscribe and listen here.

Late breaking: The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online extremism, found that “unknown activists have posted nearly 25,000 email addresses and passwords allegedly belonging to the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization, the Gates Foundation and other groups working to combat the coronavirus pandemic,” WaPo reports.

Plus: “Team Trump Turns to Peter Thiel’s Palantir to Track Virus,” via The Daily Beast.

Quick Downloads

ICYMI: A new State Department report warns that China, Iran and Russia are pushing a propaganda and disinformation campaign about the U.S., suggesting that the novel coronavirus was an American bioweapon, POLITICO reports.

Preview: FCC Chairman Pai’s blog post about the agency’s May meeting.

The anti-WFH: “Employees at Charter Communications, the internet, cable TV and phone giant known as Spectrum, have been getting sick while adhering to a company policy that has required thousands of them to work in offices and call centers rather than from home,” NYT reports.

Happy birthday, Mother Nature: In his first written piece since becoming IBM’s president this month, Jim Whitehurst reflects on the tech and climate change lessons we can take away from the global health crisis.

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TTYL and go wash your hands.