The CEOs of dozens of big-name US firms from Amazon to Apple and Facebook pressed President Donald Trump on Friday to keep an amnesty for people brought to the United States illegally as children. In a letter to Trump and top Republicans and Democrats in Congress, the business leaders - who also included executives at Cisco, eBay, General Motors, Marriott and Microsoft - warned of the economic impact of forcing almost 800,000 people back into the legal shadows. The White House reiterated that Trump has not yet decided whether to end the Obama-era program that allowed children brought to the country illegally before they were 16 to get a two-year renewable work permit.

The program known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was instituted by then president Barack Obama in 2012 via executive order and could be repealed by Trump with the stroke of a pen. Recipients of the program "grew up in America, registered with our government, submitted to extensive background checks and are diligently giving back to our communities and paying income taxes," the CEOs argued in the letter. These "hardworking young people will lose their ability to work legally in this country, and every one of them will be at immediate risk of deportation.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017