Thu, 16 Mar 2017

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

Furnished content.


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.

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.

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