(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs is pushing back against GovernmentSachs.

In a sharply worded message to staff, Lloyd Blankfein, thebank’s long-time head, broke with the Trump administration over itscontroversial attempt to crack down on immigration.

The voicemail, sent Sunday to the firm’s 34,400 employees, pitsBlankfein against an administration stocked with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. veterans, includinghis former No. 2, Gary Cohn, and key Trump adviser StevenBannon.

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Blankfein told employees that President Donald Trump’s executiveorder, parts of which were blocked by federal courts, is at oddswith the firm’s long-held policies on workforce diversity and coulddisrupt Goldman Sachs’s business. “This is not a policy wesupport,” the chief executive officer said.

Blankfein joined a growing chorus of executives, notably fromthe technology industry, expressing displeasure about the orderhalting immigration from seven Middle Eastern countries.

Google Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai slammed Trump’s move in a note toemployees Friday, while Microsoft Inc. on Sunday described theorder as “misguided and a fundamental step backward.”

Rare stand

Blankfein’s comments put Goldman Sachs, one of Wall Street’s mostinfluential firms, in the unusual position of standing against asignature effort of the new administration.

Since former Chairman Sidney Weinberg served in Washingtonduring both World War II and the Korean War, the firm has sentexecutives into government service, earning it the Government Sachsmoniker. It seldom takes a public stand against a sittingpresident.

Other Wall Street firms took a softer approach. JPMorgan Chase& Co.’s operating committee, led by CEO Jamie Dimon, said in amemo to staff Sunday that it’s “grateful for the hard work andsacrifices made to keep our country safe,” and that the country was“strengthened by the rich diversity of the world around us.” Itdidn’t express an opinion on the policy.

Wells Fargo & Co. and Morgan Stanley said they weremonitoring the ban’s impact on employees, while Citigroup Inc. CEOMike Corbat said the lender was “concerned” about the message theorder sends. Bank of America Corp. declined to comment.

Mastercard Inc. CEO Ajay Banga, citing his own status as animmigrant, said in a memo to staff that he’s “deeply concerned”about the ban, which he said has caused a “fracture in oursociety.”

‘Due process’

BlackRock Inc. “will continue to embrace our values and culture,notwithstanding the challenges created by this order,” the world’slargest money manager said Sunday in a memo to staff signed by CEOLarry Fink and other company executives. “We, of course, all wantto promote security and combat terrorism, but we believe it needsto be done with respect for due process, individual rights and theprinciple of inclusion.”

Steve Schwarzman, CEO of the world’s largest private equityfirm, Blackstone Group LP, took a pass when asked about theimmigrant order’s effect on his business. “I’m not going to commenton that,” he said at a Catholic Charities luncheon Sunday, whereGovernor Andrew Cuomo and Senator Charles Schumer, both New YorkDemocrats, used their remarks to about 150 guests to oppose theorder.

Blankfein may have felt he had to speak up: the firm was foundedin 1869 by Marcus Goldman, a German-Jewish immigrant. And like muchof Wall Street and corporate America, Goldman Sachs continues torely on employees who were not born in the U.S. It also hasincreasingly been positioning itself as a technology firm.

Potentially disruptive

“If the order were to become or remain effective, I recognizethat there is potential for disruption to the firm, and especiallyto some of our people and their families,” Blankfein, 62, said inthe voicemail. “I want to assure all of you that we will work tominimize such disruption to the extent we can within the law andare focused on supporting our colleagues and their families who maybe affected.”

Trump’s order prevents people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia,Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S. for the next threemonths. The order led to confusion over the weekend, with somejudges temporarily blocking parts of the order and theadministration giving conflicting messages on itsimplementation.

Elisha Wiesel, who was promoted this month to oversee GoldmanSachs’s technology operations and is the son of Holocaust survivorElie Wiesel, said Sunday that one or two employees have approachedhim so far about what the order might mean for them, and that heunderstands their concern. Wiesel, 44, said his father, who diedlast year, was disappointed at the U.S.’s inaction in Syria andwouldn’t have approved of the immigration order.

“In the same way he was dismayed at the lack of action overSyria, I think he would have been very disappointed at thedirection this country seems to be turning,” Wiesel said.

Goldman alumni

None of the Goldman Sachs alumni working in the administrationhave so far said publicly whether they support the immigrationban.

Cohn is serving as Trump’s top economic adviser, while DinaPowell, head of the firm’s philanthropic arm, was named anassistant to the president. Other ex-employees include StevenMnuchin, nominated to run the Treasury Department, who spent 17years at the bank.

For Goldman Sachs to be successful, the company must “reflectthe diversity of the communities and cultures in which we operate,”Blankfein said, quoting from the firm’s business principals. “Beingdiverse is not optional; it is what we must be.”

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