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A Google Staffer Helped Sell Trump's Family Separation Policy, Despite The Company's Denials (buzzfeednews.com) 223

Google executives misled their own employees last week when they said a former top Department of Homeland Security official who had recently joined the company was "not involved in the family separation policy," government emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal. From a report: In fact, Miles Taylor, who served as deputy chief of staff and then chief of staff to former Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, was involved in high-level discussions about immigration enforcement, helping to shape the department's narratives and talking points as one of Nielsen's trusted lieutenants. As Nielsen's deputy chief of staff, Taylor was included on some of the DHS secretary's emails and privy to her events schedule, often prepping his boss with reports and talking points ahead of public appearances between April and June 2018, when the family separation policy was in effect.

In one email obtained by BuzzFeed News, Taylor assisted Nielsen in preparing what he described as the "Protecting Children Narrative" -- the department's spin on a policy that horrified Americans when images of abandoned, caged migrant children in squalid camps emerged. Other emails from Nielsen's events planner show that he had been scheduled to participate in at least two weekly calls to "discuss Border Security and Immigration Enforcement" in June 2018. Two former DHS officials dismissed Google's claim that Taylor -- who last month joined the company as a government affairs and public policy manager advising on national security issues -- could have kept his hands clean from the policy.

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A Google Staffer Helped Sell Trump's Family Separation Policy, Despite The Company's Denials

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  • This article. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by penandpaper ( 2463226 ) on Monday October 28, 2019 @03:32PM (#59355852) Journal

    Welcome to modern McCarthyism.

    • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday October 28, 2019 @03:55PM (#59356002)
      Google employees are saying "I don't want to work for a company that would associate with this policy".

      It just so happens that many of those Google employees are valuable enough for Google to sit up and take notice.
      • > Isn't this the Free Market (TM) at work?

        What kind market share does google have and do they use that position in illegitimate ways?

        > many of those Google employees are valuable enough for Google to sit up and take notice.

        They sound entitled and bigoted.

        • this is about the employees using their skills as leverage to get behavior they desire out of employees.

          Now, if you'd skipped the last line or put a bit more effort into it you'd have had yourself a troll post. But you got greedy son. Try harder next time.
        • Isn't this the Free Market (TM) at work?

          No, why would you think that? Even if it was, the free market is not something to be worshiped.

        • > Isn't this the Free Market (TM) at work?

          What kind market share does google have and do they use that position in illegitimate ways?

          > many of those Google employees are valuable enough for Google to sit up and take notice.

          They sound entitled and bigoted.

          Entitled, perhaps. Bigoted? Pretty much the opposite.

      • Works both ways. I would never want to work at Google because it sounds like the people who work there are nutjobs more interested in politics than technology. I just want to write code.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • What? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by TheNarrator ( 200498 )

    So Google is like a government agency or OH MY GOD WE FOUND A REPUBLICAN AT A TECH COMPANY!! Is the author implying that If Google employees engage in political activism for Trump or whatever that that's some sort of illegal political corruption? What exactly is the outrage angel here? Those horrifying pictures were from the Obama era, btw.

    • Increasing political polarization has created a large amount of resentment for the political other. Just by being located in the San Francisco area Google has ensured that drawing from the local population is going to result in having a large number of employees who are among the farthest to the political left you can expect to get in the U.S. and are used to existing in something of a mono-culture.

      You'd probably get about the same thing if you tried to hire an Obama staffer into a company full of employ
    • Re:What? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Monday October 28, 2019 @05:22PM (#59356348) Homepage Journal

      It's not about being Republican, many of whom are fine people, I assume.

      It's about constructing a policy to kidnap children from people committing a misdemeanor, and put those children in for-profit concentration camps.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Literally the first sentence of the summary explains that the problem is they lied to staff.

      You may recall that a couple of years ago they settled a lawsuit over an illegal agreement with other tech companies but to poach staff. Seems like they are quite concerned about staff retention and lying to them probably doesn't encourage loyalty.

    • So Google is like a government agency or OH MY GOD WE FOUND A REPUBLICAN AT A TECH COMPANY!

      I know plenty of Republicans who work for Google. None, however, who thought, or think, that putting kids in cages was okay.

      • So Google is like a government agency or OH MY GOD WE FOUND A REPUBLICAN AT A TECH COMPANY!

        I know plenty of Republicans who work for Google. None, however, who thought, or think, that putting kids in cages was okay.

        But dragging kids across the desert to illegally enter another country is OK? Your entire party is dedicated to that proposition; that we want lots (millions) of people who will do just that.

    • So Google is like a government agency or OH MY GOD WE FOUND A REPUBLICAN AT A TECH COMPANY!! Is the author implying that If Google employees engage in political activism for Trump or whatever that that's some sort of illegal political corruption? What exactly is the outrage angel here? Those horrifying pictures were from the Obama era, btw.

      Hey, ideological purity does not come cheap, my friend. Are you a reactionary? Now review your little red book please.

    • Those pictures were not from the Obama era. You are clearly delusional and therefore everything you type is suspect.
  • by grasshoppa ( 657393 ) on Monday October 28, 2019 @04:01PM (#59356026) Homepage

    Is he a witch? We should see if he floats.

  • They pass laws to prevent those immigrant from objecting to any abuse. If they wanted to stop most of the immigration they would crack down on the people that employ illegal immigrants. I've lived in California and the economy and standard of living there relies on low cost illegal immigrant labour. It is pretty easy to spot, look in most farms, look at the bus loads of gardeners and cleaners coming into the cities on school buses at 5am each morning. Jail the employers and 90% of the immigration would
    • So much of this. As long as companies and specifically the owners and managers don't get punished for hiring illegals nothing will change.

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