US President Donald Trump is about to take the next big step to make his 1,600-km (1,000 mile) concrete wall along the US-Mexican border a reality. And he wants Caterpillar Inc, one of the world's biggest construction equipment manufacturers, to help build it.
Most of the world already sees this wall for what it is: a racist waste of resources and an international symbol of hate. With a majority of Americans against Trump's wall, we think Caterpillar ought to reconsider the business opportunity.
Caterpillar CEO Douglas Oberhelman himself has talked about how important immigration is to the company’s own success. And with world leaders and ordinary people in every country Caterpillar does business outraged at this atrocity, we have the opportunity to show Caterpillar they won’t be alone in making the right choice.
Tell Caterpillar, Deere, Raytheon, and other construction companies: Don't help build Trump's wall.
Any corporation with a shred of a commitment to human rights won’t stand for the Trump administration’s campaign to separate immigrant families, detain and deport children, and stoke the flames of xenophobia.
Caterpillar is seeing a rise in its stocks, which have climbed 16 percent since Trump’s election and his promises for infrastructure investment. It stands to rake in massive profits off the backs of migrant workers, refugees, and cross-border families. That’s why it’s going to take all of us coming together to convince Caterpillar that being complicit in Trump’s massive civil rights violations isn’t worth the short-term profits.
As the biggest manufacturer of construction equipment in America and one of the biggest anywhere, Caterpillar has the power to make a real statement by refusing to work on the wall. It’s up to us to call on Caterpillar to get on the right side of history and refuse to help build a symbol of hate.
Call on Caterpillar and others to stand for human rights and refuse to help build Trump’s border wall.
More information
Investor's Business Daily. 25 January 2017.