Uber CEO offers compensation for drivers impacted by immigration ban, will talk to Trump

Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick added his voice today to a growing chorus of tech executives troubled by President Donald Trump’s recent immigration order banning the entry of US residents from seven countries.

Echoing the sentiments of Google’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Kalanick wrote a letter to Uber staff, also posting to his Facebook wall. According to the executive, the ride sharing company has reached out to the dozen or so employees directly impacted by the action.

But, as Kalanick adds, the immediate impact will be far broader for the company, hitting thousands of Uber drivers who often travel back to their countries of origin to visit family.

“We are working out a process to identify these drivers and compensate them pro bono during the next three months to help mitigate some of the financial stress and complications with supporting their families and putting food on the table,” Kalanick wrote in the memo. “We will have more details on this in the coming days.”

An Uber spokesperson has since confirmed with TechCrunch that the process to determine which drivers will be directly impacted is already underway, though the company will not give a specific timeframe for issuing the compensation.

Kalanick also took the opportunity to address his decision to join Trump’s economic advisory group last month, alongside such tech executives as Elon Musk and Ginni Rometty. The CEO explains that he hoped the gig would offer a chance to help give “citizens a voice,” adding,

[T]his ban will impact many innocent people—an issue that I will raise this coming Friday when I go to Washington for President Trump’s first business advisory group meeting.

Additional reporting by Kate Conger.