Tech Industry Applauds Court Ruling on Immigration Order
February 09 2017 - 08:26PM
Dow Jones News
By Jack Nicas
The court decision Thursday to uphold a nationwide halt to
President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration delivers a
victory to hundreds of companies that have publicly opposed the
order -- and could empower them to keep fighting the
administration.
Nearly 130 companies, most from the tech industry, had taken a
public stand against the president's order by submitting a joint
legal filing late Sunday that argued the policy is unconstitutional
and hurts their businesses. Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Facebook
Inc. led the charge by helping to gather other companies' support
for the brief, according to people familiar with the matter.
On Thursday, three judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
9th Circuit ruled that the immigration order should not go into
effect while it faces legal challenges.
"I don't think we deserve credit...but I'm happy we were able to
provide some small amount of help," said Sam Altman, head of
tech-startup incubator Y Combinator, which signed the brief. He
said he expects companies to continue to "oppose policies that are
bad for our businesses and bad for our country."
Hundreds more companies and investors have spoken out against
the order, which suspended entry to the U.S. for visitors from
seven predominantly Muslim countries. President Donald Trump says
the executive order on immigration and refugees is intended to
improve national security by preventing terrorists from entry.
The appeals court ruling "reaffirms that when we mobilize --
whether as companies, nonprofits or individuals -- there are
avenues for our values to be upheld," said Aaron Levie, chief
executive of Box Inc., a cloud data-storage company, which also
signed the brief.
Mr. Trump hasn't publicly reacted to the businesses' involvement
in the legal fight. During the presidential campaign, he clashed
with several tech firms and has singled out other companies since
he won the election over issues including their use of overseas
factories.
Silicon Valley spearheaded the corporate dissent against the
Jan. 27 order. Within two days of its signing, a wide swath of tech
companies big and small began criticizing the order. Google
co-founder Sergey Brin, for instance, attended a protest at San
Francisco International Airport.
Companies in other industries also spoke out. The chief
executives of Ford Motor Co., Coca-Cola Co., Goldman Sachs Group
Inc., General Electric Co. and Nike Inc. all publicly criticized
the ban. On Tuesday, more than 150 biotechnology executives and
investors published a letter against the ban, saying it threatens
the U.S.'s medical-research industry. The letter said 52% of U.S.
biomedical researchers are foreign-born. And a variety of big firms
across industries have discussed publishing a letter opposing the
policy, though the status of that letter is unclear.
--Deepa Seetharaman contributed to this article.
Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 09, 2017 20:11 ET (01:11 GMT)
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