SEATTLE _ Microsoft sought to reassure and offer legal assistance Saturday to employees affected by President Donald Trump's executive order temporarily blocking citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S.
Trump's order suspended entry of all refugees to the U.S. for 120 days, and barred Syrian refugees indefinitely. It also halted, for 90 days, entry into the U.S. for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
In an email to employees Saturday, Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith said the company was aware of 76 employees who are citizens of those countries and hold U.S. temporary work visas.
"As we have in other instances and in other countries, we're committed as a company to working with all of our employees and their families," Smith said. "We'll make sure that we do everything we can to provide fast and effective legal advice and assistance."
He said the company had reached out to each of those employees, but added that there may be others with permanent-resident status, or green cards, who could be banned from re-entering the U.S. under the new policy.
Microsoft's U.S. workforce is heavily dependent on immigrants and guest workers. Microsoft employed 120,000 people at the end of 2016, including about 71,000 in the U.S. Of those, 45,400 worked in Washington state.
In a quarterly filing this week, Microsoft said changes to U.S. immigration policy that restrict the flow of people "may inhibit our ability to adequately staff our research and development efforts."
Microsoft, Smith said, believes in a "strong and balanced high-skilled immigration system," and supports efforts to ease barriers to immigration, including the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which defers deportation for immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.
That policy faces an uncertain future under Trump, who has called for mass deportations and for reform of the guest-worker programs that Microsoft and other software companies rely on.
"We believe that immigration laws can and should protect the public without sacrificing people's freedom of expression or religion," Smith said.
