As the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals awaits arguments regarding Donald Trump’s immigration executive order, almost 100 major tech companies have filed friend-of-the-court briefs against the travel ban.
Twitter, Uber, Google and Apple were among 97 companies to file a friend-of-the-court brief early on Monday with a federal appeals court hearing challenges to President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration.
“The order effects a sudden shift in the rules governing entry into the United States, and is inflicting substantial harm on U.S. companies,” the amicus curiae brief, filed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, read. “It hinders the ability of American companies to attract great talent; increases costs imposed on business; makes it more difficult for American firms to compete in the international market- place; and gives global enterprises a new, significant incentive to build operations—and hire new employees—outside the United States.”
The brief also calls the order “a significant departure from the principles of fairness and predictability that have governed the immigration system” and argues that it violates 1965 immigration legislation, signed into law by former President Lyndon Johnson, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of national origin when granting asylum to foreign travelers.
An estimated 37.4 percent of Silicon Valley employees are foreign born, according to the 2016 Silicon Valley Index (PDF) released by think tank Joint Venture.
