Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has joined a growing list of tech executives in condemning President Donald Trump's recent immigration ban.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, Sandberg, who represented the company at Trump Tower when Silicon Valley executives met with Trump back in December, took a surprisingly aggressive stance against the president's immigration policies — much more aggressive than CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in a similar post late last week.
"The Executive Orders issued over the past week defy the heart and values that define the best of our nation," Sandberg wrote, referring to Trump's plan to ban immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. "Families have been separated. Frightened children have been detained in airports without their parents. People seeking refuge have been turned away and sent back to the danger they just managed to flee. This is not how it should be in America."
Sandberg, unsurprisingly, pointed out how the immigration ban is particularly troubling for women. Sandberg has long been a champion for female empowerment initiatives, and authored the book "Lean In," which is why it surprised many that she stayed silent as millions of women marched in cities across the country earlier this month.
She is not, however, staying quiet about immigration.
"Long before this week, women — especially undocumented women — have been vulnerable to violence and abuse once they get here," Sandberg said, sharing a story about her great-great-grandmother, who came to the U.S. from Lithuania in the late 1800s.
"Young women caught in refugee status are highly vulnerable to violence and exploitation and also often lose the chance at an education. We know that no investment has a higher return than girls' education — for them, for their families and for the countries they may someday help rebuild," she added.
Sandberg also commented on Trump's anti-abortion policies last week, saying they could have "terrible consequences for women and families around the world."
—By Kurt Wagner, Recode.net.
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