President Trump’s ambitious yet controversial executive order banning immigrants from seven countries has run into fresh trouble with nearly a hundred tech companies including, Microsoft, Apple, Intel, and Facebook filing a legal brief opposing the order.
The amicus brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington can also be seen as the strongest response that Trump’s anti-immigration policy has generated so far.
No less than 97 of the most high-profile companies operating in the U.S. have come together to oppose the ban.
Apart from the more well-known tech firms, the list also includes relative new entrants such as Uber or Netflix while non-tech firms such as Levi Strauss or Chobani too are among the signatories. The companies believe the presidential order will inflict more harm to ‘American business, growth, and innovation’ than any other benefit that it might have.
However, missing from the list is Amazon and Tesla.
Amazon though clarified they already are supporting the lawsuit that the Washington state filed against the order and are hence eager to stay committed to that.
Tesla though seems to have other ideas and is widely seen to be actually supportive of Trump’s ideas or policies. CEO Elon Musk had in fact reached out to his followers on Twitter to seek advice on ways to work around the order claiming that outright revoking of the order is practically impossible.
Trump had earlier issued the executive order that banned refugees and immigrants from mostly Muslim majority countries on grounds of internal security and safety of its citizens. The move led to almost instantaneous protests who claim it stands against the very ideas of ‘fairness and predictability’ that has been a key part of the country’s immigration policy for the more than half a century.
The policy is also seen to run against American interests as this will make it more difficult for the companies to hire the best talents from around the world. Those against the ban justified their stand claiming more than 200 of the Fortune 500 companies have either been setup by immigrants or their children.
Trump right now has time up to Monday to push his immigration order after a federal judge imposed a temporary restraining order on it.
