Tech giants Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook, along with some 90 other tech companies, have jumped into the legal battle against President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration ban and filed an amicus brief in the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Stating that Trump’s executive order “violates the immigration laws and the Constitution”, the tech firms have argued that it “inflicts significant harm on American business, innovation and growth”.
“Immigrants or their children founded more than 200 of the companies on the Fortune 500 list,” the brief says, noting that the Trump order “represents a significant departure from the principles of fairness and predictability that have governed the immigration system of the United States for more than fifty years”.
“The experience and energy of people who come to our country to seek a better life for themselves and their children — to pursue the ‘American Dream’ — are woven throughout the social, political, and economic fabric of the Nation,” it said.
The other tech companies who have joined the legal brief include Intel, Netflix, Twitter, linkedIn, Mozilla, Dropbox, Glassdoor, Pinterest, Reddit, Salesforce, Square, Twilo, Yelp, Zynga and a host of others.
The companies are strongly backing the lawsuit filed by Washington State last week that led a Seattle judge last Saturday to order a nationwide stay on the travel ban which has since been challenged by the Trump administration in the 9th Circuit Court.
In response to the appeal filed by the Justice Department, lawyers for the States of Washington and Minnesota have argued that staying the injunction granted by the Seattle judge, James Robart, will “unleash chaos again”, so the 9th Circuit Court should decline the Trump administration’s request.
The Appeals Court has asked the Justice Department to file by 6 pm EST Monday its counter-response to the briefs submitted by the challengers.