Immigration Reform News 2017: Trump Talks Immigration, Education With Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs
U.S. President Donald Trump met with Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and a prolific donor to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, and discussed immigration and education policy reform at the White House on Wednesday, according to White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
Though Powell Jobs previously supported Clinton's top dollar super political action committee, Priorities USA by donating $2 million through her non-profit organization in the last presidential election, her meeting with the president gave her the chance to talk about her two top issues – education and immigration.
The White House meeting was closed to journalists, and as such, other details about what transpired during the meeting remain undisclosed.
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According to Bloomberg, the meeting took place after the president issued a second executive order temporarily prohibiting travel and immigration from six predominantly Muslim countries. The same order also prevents all admissions under the U.S. refugee program for the next four months, while also cutting the number of refugees to be admitted to the country this fiscal year by half.
Despite initiating stricter implementation of immigration and travel laws in the United States, Trump has also hinted that he is open to further reforming immigration policies, according to CNN.
Powell Jobs is the president of the Emerson Collective, a philanthropic organization that began in 1997 which advocates for dramatic change to the education system as well as comprehensive immigration reform. Lately, the organization has aligned itself with critics of Trump's policies.
Powell Jobs herself has advocated for wholesale immigration reform, supporting policies that would give legal status for people brought into the country without documents as children.
"We have educated individuals and individuals who want to further their education, passionately, deeply, right here in our country who we are not enabling," she said in a 2013 interview with NBC News.
Trump already commenced the crackdown on undocumented immigrants all over the country, pledged stricter enforcement of U.S. laws, and started plans to construct the wall he promised to build along the Mexican border. However, the president has yet to decide on how to handle undocumented immigrants that entered the country as children.
These undocumented children are called "Dreamers" by advocates like Powell Jobs, and have been granted temporary legal status under former President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
