Ein amerikanisch-syrischer CEO wendet sich in einem offenen Brief an Donald Trump

Rami Essaid, Mitgründer und CEO von “Distil Networks“, ein US-Unternehmen für Cybersecurity, kritisiert in einem ofenen Brief das strikte Einreiseverbot von Donald Trump gegenüber Menschen aus sieben überwiegend muslimisch geprägten Ländern. Essaid appelliert dabei an Trumps eigene Familiengeschichte und schildert wie das Einreiseverbot seine eigene Familie betrifft. Zwar hat ein US-Gericht mittlerweile Green Card-Besitzer vom Einreiseverbot befreit, im Kern bleibt Trumps Einreisereglementierung aber bestehen. Essaids eindringlicher Brief an den amtierenden US-Präsidenten gibt es hier im vollständigen Wortlaut:

Dear President Trump,

my name is Rami Essaid, and I’m cofounder and CEO of a cybersecurity company. We’re an American firm that helps hundreds of businesses, like Verizon, StubHub, and Glassdoor, block attacks on their websites. We’ve received $65 million in funding from some of the top venture capital firms in the country. We have proudly created more than 200 jobs, most in the United States.

And I’m a Syrian-born immigrant.

Like your German grandfather Friedrich and countless other newcomers, my father came to the United States in search of a better life for his family. In my dad’s case, the desire was particularly acute: The family was looking to escape the targeted harassment and oppression of the authoritarian regime of Hafez al-Assad, Syria’s president from 1971 to 2000 and father of current strongman Bashar al-Assad. So we moved to the United States in 1991, when I was in the second grade.

We fell on hard times. Though well educated, with an engineering degree, my father had trouble finding good work and, for several years, we lived on the edge of poverty. But he persevered and by the time I reached high school, my dad was a successful environmental engineer and supporting a middle-class lifestyle for my mother, my two younger sisters, and me.

I inherited my father’s ambition, determination, and predilection for risk-taking. I dropped out of college in 2004 and started a retail cell phone company. After that, I went into the corporate world for a while but couldn’t shake my entrepreneurial urge to start and build a business. With the help of two lifelong friends, I launched cybersecurity company Distil Networks in 2011. We’ve been doubling our revenue every year since.

I tell you all this because you’re a man who respects success. And I thought it was important you know my backstory before I speak to you, businessman to businessman, about the effects of your ban on citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days – with Syrian refugees barred indefinitely.

This action and the resulting confusion and uncertainty – even as the courts weigh in – are hurting my company’s ability to operate.

Though I am a proud U.S. citizen, an American, and have renounced my Syrian citizenship, the ban has created so much turmoil that our investors are now concerned about me traveling abroad and have told me to stay home until this is sorted out. So I’ve had to cancel some important meetings.

It’s hard to make good deals when the deal-makers can’t meet.

We sometimes rely on candidates from abroad to fill key positions when we can’t find the right talent in the U.S., and in recent days, we have seen several strong candidates withdraw.