Toss Trump travel ban: tech firms
NY museum to aid green-card holders
SAN FRANCISCO, April 20, (Agencies): Scores of technology firms including Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft on Wednesday joined in a legal filing urging a judge to toss out President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban.
More than 160 companies, all but a couple of which are in the technology sector, signed a “friend of the court” brief siding with opponents of Trump’s executive order in a US appeals court for the District of Maryland.
Federal judges have halted Trump’s revised executive order issued in March to temporarily close US borders to refugees and nationals from six Muslim-majority countries, dealing the president a humiliating defeat.
The rulings triggered a nationwide freeze on enforcement of a ban on entry by nationals of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days.
A US judge ruled that the state of Hawaii, in its legal challenge, had established a strong likelihood that the ban would cause “irreparable injury” were it to go ahead.
In Maryland, US District Judge Theodore Chuang issued a similar nationwide injunction on a separate complaint filed by advocacy groups claiming that the amended order discriminates against Muslims.
In the “amicus brief” filed Wednesday, companies backed the argument that Trump’s ban not only discriminated on the basis of religion, it also overstepped the authority of the president to change rules regarding who is allowed into this country.
Effects
“The second order effects a fundamental shift in the rules governing entry into the United States, and is inflicting substantial harm on US companies, their employees, and the entire US economy,” lawyers argued in a copy of the brief available online.
The ban makes it more difficult to attract talented employees, increases costs; makes it tougher to compete, and makes it more appealing for global enterprises to invest in operations in more immigrant-friendly countries, according to the brief.
Trump has said a travel ban is needed to preserve US national security and keep out extremists.
Meanhile, with the Trump administration trying to ban travelers from several Muslim-majority countries from the United States, the New-York Historical Society and museum is launching a new initiative to help green-card holders become American citizens.
The program will include free work- shops and classes, paired with displays and a scavenger hunt at the museum on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, all linked to questions on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization test - the final hurdle to citizenship.
“As far as we are aware, we are the first institution to develop a higher program of on-site workshops using our object collection with the exclusive purpose of promoting citizenship for as many legal immigrants as possible,” said Louise Mirrer, the society’s president and chief executive.
About 13.1 million people across the United States were green-card holders on Jan. 1, 2013, and 8.8 million of them were eligible for naturalization, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.