Thousands of Google employees gathered at the company's Mountain View campus on Monday to protest President Donald Trump's new immigration orders.
A crowd amassed at the center of the tech giant's headquarters, many carrying signs that read "#NoBanNoWall," "All are welcome" and "We are a nation of immigrants."
The unofficial rally was started by a Google engineer and included several speakers, including co-founder Sergey Brin, a Russian immigrant.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai criticized Trump’s immigration order in an email to staff on Friday, saying the U.S. ban on foreign nationals from seven countries affects at least 187 Google employees, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"This is something, there are some values, which are really near and dear to your heart," Pichai said. "It’s foundational and it’s something you should never compromise on. The thing we’ve been debating for the past three days is one of them."
Nearly 1,000 Google employees in San Francisco held a similar march and rally earlier in the afternoon along the Embarcadero. Rallies also were held at Google offices in New York, Seattle and London.
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On Saturday, Brin joined hundreds of protesters at San Francisco International Airport, telling reporters he is a refugee, according to the Mercury News. Brin and his family fled Russia in 1979 because of persecution against Jews, the newspaper said.
"I came here to the U.S. at age 6 with my family from the Soviet Union, which at that time was the greatest enemy the U.S. had — maybe it still is in some form — but it was a dire period of the Cold War," Brin told the crowd. "Some of you probably remember it. And there was threat of nuclear annihilation. And even then the U.S. had the courage to take me and my family in as refugees."
Google has created a $4 million crisis fund for four organizations that support immigrants: the American Civil Liberties Union, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, International Rescue Committee and UNHCR, according to USA Today.
CEOs of other large corporations, including Apple's Tim Cook, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Starbucks' Howard Schultz, also have been outspoken against Trump's immigration ban.
Massive protest @Google to protest President Trump's immigration orders. https://t.co/vPon8Qkamf pic.twitter.com/6KqXpgvLiz — NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) January 30, 2017
