Nearly 100 companies, including technology giants Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google Inc., have filed a legal brief opposing President Donald Trump's temporary ban on refugees and travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the United States.
Trump's executive order, which has been put on hold by a federal judge in Seattle, "is inflicting substantial harm on U.S. companies" and "violates the immigration laws and the Constitution," says the brief, filed late Sunday. The tech sector relies heavily on foreign-born software engineers to meet its staffing needs.
The White House has asked the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to remove the judge's hold on the ban.
In their amici curiae, or "friend of the court," filing, the companies argued that the ban "hinders the ability of American companies to attract great talent" and "increases costs imposed on business."
The order also "makes it more difficult for American firms to compete in the international marketplace; and gives global enterprises a new, significant incentive to build operations _ and hire new employees _ outside the United States," the companies stated.
"America has long recognized the importance of protecting ourselves against those who would do us harm," the brief continued. "But it has done so while maintaining our fundamental commitment to welcoming immigrants _ through increased background checks and other controls on people seeking to enter our country."
Other companies that joined in calling for the ban to be lifted included eBay Inc., Intel Corp., Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc. and Netflix Inc.
Several large tech companies also are planning to sign an open letter to Trump expressing concern about the immigration order and offering help in fixing it, Bloomberg News reported.
The technology industry has been among the most vocal in arguing against Trump's immigration policies.
The industry previously has had success in combating other policies it opposed.
For instance, Google and other Internet giants in 2012 led a successful campaign to scuttle legislation in Congress called the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and the Protect IP Act, or PIPA. The bills aimed to crack down on websites that traffic in pirated goods but were viewed by critics as an unwarranted intrusion on Internet freedom.
