Nearly 100 US technology companies have filed a legal brief opposing President Trump’s ban on migration from seven Muslim-majority countries, arguing that it imposes significant burdens on the industry by preventing it from hiring talented migrants.
The filing – known as an amicus brief, or ‘friend of the court’ – said President Trump’s executive order “violates the immigration laws and the Constitution”.
Among the companies signing the filing against Trump’s order are Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, as well as firms such as Uber, Reddit, Netflix and Dropbox. Notably absent are Amazon, which had previously pledged its support to the Washington lawsuit, Tesla and SpaceX, the companies of Trump advisory council member Elon Musk.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has defended his decision to take part in the advisory council, saying it’s better to be on the inside where he can push Trump on issues like immigration and climate change.
The brief argues that the executive order harms innovation and economic growth, as well as the competitiveness of American companies while also being unlawful.
Their court motion filed Sunday night emphasizes the important role of immigration in the U.S. economy.
“Immigrants make many of the Nation’s greatest discoveries, and create some of the country’s most innovative and iconic companies,” it says.
“At the same time, America has long recognized the importance of protecting ourselves against those who would do us harm,” it adds. “But it has done so while maintaining the fundamental commitment to welcoming immigrants –through increased background checks and other controls on people seeking to enter our country.”
It argues that the beneficiaries of America’s generally pro-migration attitude “are not just the new immigrants who chose to come to our shores, but American businesses, workers, and consumers, who gain immense advantages from immigrants’ infusion of talents, energy, and opportunity”. It also claims that the executive order will serve to “incentivise both immigration to and investment in foreign countries rather than the United States”.
The full list of companies is as follows:
AdRoll Aeris Communications Airbnb AltSchool Ancestry.com Appboy Apple AppNexus Asana Atlassian Autodesk Automattic Box Brightcove Brit + Co CareZone Castlight Health Checkr Chobani Citrix Systems Cloudera Cloudflare Copia Institute DocuSign DoorDash Dropbox Dynatrace eBay Engine Advocacy Etsy Facebook Fastly Flipboard Foursquare Fuze General Assembly GitHub Glassdoor Google GoPro Harmonic Hipmunk Indigogo Intel JAND d/b/a Warby Parker Kargo Kickstarter KIND Knotel Levi Strauss & Co. LinkedIn Lithium Technologies Lyft Mapbox Maplebear d/b/a Instacart Marin Software Medallia Medium Meetup Microsoft Motivate International Mozilla Netflix Netgear NewsCred Patreon PayPal Pinterest Quora Reddit Rocket Fuel SaaStr Salesforce Scopely Shutterstock Snap Spokeo Spotify Square Squarespace Strava Stripe SurveyMonkey TaskRabbit Tech:NYC Thumbtack Turn Twilio Twitter Turn Uber Via Wikimedia Foundation Workday Y Combinator Yelp ZyngaLegally, the brief argues two main points make the order unlawful: the fact that exercises arbitrary discretion, and that it discriminates on the basis of nationality. “There is no precedent for an order like this one in magnitude or kind,” the brief declares. “No order before this one imposed a categorical ban of hundreds of millions of foreign nationals.”
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick on Thursday dropped out of Trump’s business advisory council, citing the ban.
“The executive order is hurting many people in communities all across America,” Kalanick wrote in a memo to employees. “Families are being separated, people are stranded overseas and there’s a growing fear the U.S. is no longer a place that welcomes immigrants.”
The lawsuit is currently being heard in the ninth circuit court of appeals, a federal court in San Francisco. If the court finds the ban illegal, it is likely that the administration’s appeals will continue, and the case could end up in the US supreme court.
