PALO ALTO — Hundreds of Bay Area tech workers concerned about Donald Trump’s administration rallied outside of Palo Alto’s City Hall on Tuesday, days before the president’s revised immigration order was scheduled to take effect.
Demonstrators of all ages held signs that read “First the Muslims. Are You Next?,” “Global warming is not fake news” and “Love Trumps Hate.” Standing outside on a sunny day, some wore “Dump Trump” buttons, bright blue T-shirts or pink knitted hats with cat ears. One woman even came dressed as the Statue of Liberty.
Karen Latina, a 56-year-old independent consultant for a biotech company, held up a sign with the words “Love to tweet? Thank an immigrant.”
The tech industry is filled with immigrants, and America needs to be an open and inclusive society, she said.
“He’s just been enacting measures so rapidly that are so antithetical to what we stand for as Americans that I feel that I can’t be quiet,” said Latina, who took a train from San Carlos to attend the rally.
Speakers, who included tech executives, nonprofit leaders and service workers, urged tech workers to get more involved in their communities.
“It’s an amazing honor for me as an immigrant entrepreneur that we are now helping to create jobs for Americans of every color, every background … we should do everything in our power that we do not let that ever be changed,” said Dilawar Syed, president of Freshdesk, which provides customer engagement software.
Syed, a Muslim-American and a U.S. citizen, called on tech workers to continue showing up, pick an area they’re most passionate about and reach across to bring the country together.
The rally, organized by the nonprofit Tech Stands Up, was started by Brad Taylor, an engineer at Optimizely, and his wife Amber Allred Taylor, who is director of people operations at Navdy.
Frustrated when Trump signed an immigration order on Jan. 27, Brad Taylor created a Facebook event for the Pi Day rally.
“I felt that our industry could be doing more and our tech leaders could be saying more about the current policies that have been enacted,” Taylor said in an interview before the rally.
Pi Day, which is on March 14, is an annual celebration of a mathematical constant that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. A Greek letter is used to symbolize Pi, which is approximately 3.14159.
He sent out an invite to a few of his friends and didn’t think much of it. But then thousands of people started signing up to attend the event. About 1,700 people said they were going to the rally and 10,000 people expressed interest.
Some tech workers were upset after tech executives from companies including Alphabet, Apple and Facebook met with Trump last December, he said. Others wanted to be more politically active, but didn’t know how.
“I’d like to know what I can do and how I can use my skills as a technologist to get the word out and make some changes,” said Austin Marshall, a 34-year-old software engineer from Numenta, at the rally.
And some tech workers said they want to make sure that what they’re building is being used for good, not harm.
“Technology can be used to do really incredible things, but the sword can cut both ways,” said David Jedeikin, a San Francisco engineer who works at InfoScout.
Tuesday’s rally came two days before Trump’s revised travel ban was scheduled to go into effect. The executive order, which the president signed on March 6, blocks citizens of six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days. It also bars refugees from entering this country for 120 days.
Trump argues that the order helps protect the country against terrorism and it does not apply to current visa holders, green card holders, U.S. citizens and dual nationals.
For the tech industry, the activism is far from over.
Tech Stands Up is also hosting a hackathon in April to link developers with nonprofits, activists, journalists, designers and people who work on public policy. There, participants will focus on how to help immigrants and how to help defend against attacks on the press and free speech.
“We don’t think that apps and algorithms are going to solve these problems, but there’s definitely some things that our industry can help with,” Taylor said.
Reading this on your phone? Stay up to date with our new, free mobile app. Get it from the Apple app store or the Google Play store.
