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March 2017
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Tech Companies File Amicus Brief, Still Opposed To New Trump Immigration Order

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Last month, we noted that a ton of tech companies -- including us at the Copia Institute -- had signed on to amicus brief opposing the Trump Executive Order on immigration. As you know, the administration came out with a new executive order a few weeks later, trying to get around the multiple courts that had blocked the original order. The new order is just a cosmetic rewriting of the original one with a few small changes that the administration hopes will survive judicial scrutiny. A number of challenges have already been filed to the new order, and in one of them, brought by the state of Hawaii, a bunch of tech companies (again, including the Copia Institute) have now filed an amicus brief opposing the order. In particular, this brief focuses on the harms to the tech industry, including actual examples of harms created by this exec order:

  • A U.S. resident employed at a cutting-edge software company fearsthat he cannot leave the U.S. because he is a national of a Muslim majoritycountry targeted by President Trump's travel ban. If heattempts to travel outside the country, he could be detained andrefused re-entry. After the travel ban went into effect, he canceledplans to bring his mother to the U.S. to visit him, out of concernthat she might be detained or turned away. He has not been homefor five years. The U.S. company he works for, which employsover 100 people and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars incapital, was founded by an immigrant.
  • A high-tech, U.S.-based software company devoted significantresources to an event it scheduled in February 2017 where itplanned to host owners of small businesses and tech start-upsbased overseas. Before these entrepreneurs became business andstart-up owners, they were Syrian refugees. After PresidentTrump's travel ban went into effect on January 27, 2017, the eventwas abruptly postponed, because the guests were unable to travelto the U.S. on account of their status as Syrian refugees. The U.S.-based software company plans to reschedule the event at alocation outside the U.S., so the Syrian refugees and entrepreneurscan safely attend.
  • A U.S.-based mobile app and website development company withmillions of users worldwide employs U.S. residents who arenationals of the Muslim-majority countries targeted by PresidentTrump's travel ban. In late January and February 2017, some ofthese employees had planned to fly outside the U.S. for business orpersonal reasons. Since the travel ban was announced, theseemployees canceled their flights for fear they would be detained ornot permitted to re-enter the U.S.
  • A U.S.-based technology company courted promising jobcandidates overseas and was prepared to offer them employmentwhen the prospects suddenly withdrew from consideration becausethey were worried about immigration issues in light of PresidentTrump's travel ban.
  • After the implementation of President Trump's travel ban, foreign bornfounders of a U.S.-based technology company beganexploring the possibility of moving their company outside of theU.S.and taking the company's jobs with them.
The filing goes through the history of the initial ban, and then notes that the new version is still just as bad:
President Trump's new travel ban is no different. It will inflict the samesubstantial and irreparable harm upon U.S. companies and their employees. Andin implementing the promise of a Muslim ban, the new travel ban suffers frommany of the same defects as the first travel ban. It violates the prohibition againstnationality-based discrimination that Congress established through the Immigrationand Nationality Act. It exceeds the authority granted to the Executive. It isarbitrary and overbroad in scope. And it impermissibly discriminates on the basisof religion and deprives individuals of Due Process rights, thus violating the U.S.Constitution. In sum, President Trump's new travel ban has not overcome theconstitutional and legal deficiencies that led courts to enjoin his first travel ban.Accordingly, the new travel ban should meet the same fate as the first travel banit should be enjoined nationwide.
This amicus brief is at the district court level, so it's still quite early in the process -- and there are other legal challenges in other courts. This will still take a while to sort itself out, but we're proud to stand alongside others in the industry in speaking up for why these immigration executive orders are illegal and unconstitutional, not to mention bad for innovation and the economy.Update: Oh, and just an hour or so after I posted this, the judge has granted a temporary restraining order, blocking the executive order from going into effect...

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posted at: 12:00am on 16-Mar-2017
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City Of Tacoma To Pay $50,000 To Privacy Activist For Over-Redacting FBI's Stingray Non-Disclosure Agreement

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In the fall of 2015, privacy activist Phil Mocek and the Center for Open Policing sued the city of Tacoma for its response to a request for Stingray documents. The documents Mocek obtained were heavily-redacted, despite there being several mostly-unredacted versions of the FBI's Stingray non-disclosure agreement already in public circulation.(This would be the standard NDA the FBI appends to every Stingray purchase by local law enforcement agencies -- one that says all public records requests should be forwarded to the feds and encourages locals to toss cases rather than expose Stingray use. It's also the same contract the FBI was shocked to hear agencies were complying with after signing on the dotted line to take ownership of their new cell tower spoofers.)The lawsuit was filed under the state's open records law, with Mocek challenging the Tacoma PD's use of the "investigative records" exemption to withhold significant amounts of a mostly bog-standard nondisclosure agreement. As was noted back then, the continued withholding of this information could become costly (for taxpayers): the state's public records law allows for fines of $500/day for violations.The court has spoken and the Tacoma PD's excessive secrecy is indeed going to cost residents a chunk of change.

The city of Tacoma will pay a $50,000 fine as well as legal fees for violating the Public Records Act by withholding most of a nondisclosure agreement it signed to obtain cellphone surveillance equipment commonly known as a Stingray.[...]In an order signed Friday, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthbertson said the city’s redactions violated state law.He ordered Tacoma to pay $100 a day for every day the city “wrongfully withheld the unredacted NDA from June 21, 2014, until November 3, 2015, when the city provided this record to plaintiffs,” a penalty period of 500 days. The penalty is the maximum allowable under state law.
The judge determined the exemption cited was improper and withholding large amounts of contractual language served no conceivable law enforcement purpose. The city blamed the FBI for its lavish deployment of black toner. Presumably, the FBI will push back, stating it expects no one to uphold the terms of an agreement it forces them to sign before they can acquire the devices.This unjustified secrecy is going to hurt the city (and its taxpaying residents) a few more times. The Tacoma New Times points out there are several pending lawsuits dealing with the same Stingray documents, including one filed by the ACLU. The city says it won't seek reimbursement from the federal government for fines and fees, but maybe it should, especially if it's going to blame the FBI for the Tacoma PD's secrecy. This actually sounds like a "good faith" attempt to respect the terms of its agreement with the FBI. The FBI got the secrecy it wanted -- at least temporarily. The least it can do is offer to cover the damages of the NDA it says everyone must sign, but apparently doesn't expect anyone to follow.

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posted at: 12:00am on 16-Mar-2017
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