Jeff Bezos is the CEO and founder of Amazon, and he is also the richest man in the world right now. Thanks to the president's latest remarks about "shithole countries," Bezos will now be donating a small fortune to students who once benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy (DACA).
Bezos' decision to give $33 million to around 1,000 "Dreamers" came just one day after Trump made one of his most blatantly ignorant comments yet, about immigrants from what he called "shithole" countries.
Back in September, Trump announced that he would be ending DACA in six months' time. There are currently negotiations about whether Congress will write, and Trump will sign, a so-called "clean" DACA bill, with no other legislation attached. But Trump seems determined (at least, when he remembers to be) to instead only pass DACA if it means he gets billions of dollars for a "see-through" border wall.
Bezos' donation will benefit DACA students through his nonprofit scholarship organization, TheDream.US, and marks his first major philanthropic act known to the public, according to Buzzfeed. The billionaire tech mogul shared his own father's immigration story when announcing his charitable decision, stating that the elder Bezos benefited from a governmental program, "Operation Pedro Pan," when immigrating in the '60s. "With a lot of grit and determination—and the help of some remarkable organizations in Delaware—my dad became an outstanding citizen, and he continues to give back to the country that he feels blessed him in so many ways." Bezos continues in the footsteps of his father with this act of generosity—though he could stand to extend some of that generosity to his own workers.
