Tim Cook uses Supreme Court filing to hammer Trump's immigration policy

After some awkward interactions and small jabs, Tim Cook finally brought the hammer down on President Donald Trump — specifically, his immigration policy.

Cook's condemnation comes via a "friend of the court" brief Cook wrote alongside Apple HR chief Deidre O’Brien and filed with the Supreme Court on Wednesday. In it, Cook takes aim at Trump's plans to repeal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

In the brief, Cook says, "Apple employs DACA recipients who embody Apple’s commitment to innovation in a wide variety of positions... they, and immigrants like them, are vital to Apple’s success. They spark creativity and help drive innovation. They are among our most driven and selfless colleagues."

It continues: "Our interest in this case is simple: We are distressed at the prospect of ripping our DACA colleagues from the fabric of our company. This issue is a moral one: Our country made a deal with a highly vulnerable population interested in a bright future, and we should keep that deal."

The brief runs through the stories of five different Apple employees who benefitted from DACA (also known as "Dreamers"), detailing their path to the U.S. and how they've become valuable contributors to Apple.

It also notes that "Apple employs 443 Dreamers who come from more than 25 different countries on four continents" and that these Dreamers are based in 36 different states in all regions of the U.S.

And it references Apple's revered founder, Steve Jobs, noting he was the son of a Syrian immigrant: "Apple would quite literally not exist without a brilliant and driven population of immigrants. Apple founder Steve Jobs’s father immigrated from Syria. Dreamers form a pipeline from which future managers and leaders will be drawn. Each is an innovator with promotion potential, and we would be thrilled if they spent their careers at Apple."

DACA was enacted in 2012 under then-President Barack Obama but Trump rescinded the act in 2017 which, in turn, led to legal challenges to get DACA reinstated. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case in November with a decision expected some time in 2020.

This isn't the first time Cook criticized Trump's immigration policies. The Apple CEO slammed Trump's "zero tolerance" approach in the summer of 2018 as news of the White House's family separation policy spread. And Cook recently spoke out in support of DACA at an event in New York City.

While Apple has filed such briefs before, this is the first time Cook (and O'Brien) have filed a brief with their personal names attached, a huge difference. By filing the brief in his name, Cook lent his—and Apple's—weight to the proceedings, a considerable step given that Cook has tried to maintain something of a cordial relationship with Trump despite their clear differences.

Though he's got his hands full at the moment, we can rest assured Trump won't let this note from Cook pass without comment, likely in the form of a thinly veiled threat on Twitter.

So credit to Cook, O'Brien, and Apple. For all the corporation does that could be criticized, they earn a gold star for standing up to Trump and, quite literally, walking the walk.

You can read the brief in its entirety here.