By Jay Greene 

Microsoft Corp. called on the Trump administration to create a process for granting exceptions to last Friday's executive order on immigration, the latest step by technology companies to address challenges posed by the action.

In a letter sent Thursday to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith pushed for a speedy process to alleviate the strain on employees separated from families because of the order.

He said 76 of the company's employees, along with 41 of their dependents, that hold nonimmigrant visas to live and work in the U.S. were affected by the executive order, which bars entry to the U.S. by people from seven majority-Muslim nations out of concerns about the risk of terrorism.

"We are concerned about families that have been separated as one or both parents were outside the United States last Friday and therefore cannot re-enter the country and are stranded away from their homes," Mr. Smith wrote in the five-page letter. "We are also concerned about an impacted employee inside the United States with a desperate need to visit a critically-ill parent abroad."

The executive order includes a clause that gives the two secretaries the ability to issue visas "on a case-by-case basis, and when in the national interest," Mr. Smith wrote.

"We therefore believe that the process we are proposing here is not only consistent with the Executive Order, but was contemplated by it," he wrote.

Microsoft has been particularly outspoken on the order. Along with Alphabet Inc., Apple Inc. and others, Microsoft is considering a joint letter to Mr. Trump opposing the order, and offering to work with the White House to develop different policies. Microsoft and Amazon.com Inc. also have offered support for a lawsuit filed Monday against the order by the Washington state attorney general.

The executive order is taking a toll on employees who have already been vetted by government officials. "These are not situations that law-abiding individuals should be forced to confront when there is no evidence that they pose a security or safety threat to the United States, " Mr. Smith wrote.

Microsoft asked the secretaries to create a category for applicants to be classified as a "Responsible Known Traveler with Pressing Needs."

Microsoft suggested several criteria in which travelers would qualify, including holding a valid nonimmigrant work visa sponsored by a U.S. employer, or being an immediate family member of that visa holder. The travelers also can't have committed crimes in the U.S., and they must be traveling to fulfill business needs of their employers or for family-related emergencies.

To qualify for the proposed exception, Microsoft suggested barring business travel for the applicants to the countries covered by the executive order -- Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Syria -- though personal travel to those areas would be allowed case by case.

Microsoft said employer-sponsored nonimmigrant visa holders already have undergone extensive vetting. The government knows their occupations, places of work and residences, family members, and the existence of any criminal histories. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services also has done background checks on them, Mr. Smith wrote.

"These are not people trying to avoid detection," he wrote.

Denying international travel has a significant administrative and opportunity cost as U.S. companies cancel business meetings those workers would have attended.

"The suspension of admission to the U.S. for impacted individuals has created substantial disruption for companies, and that disruption has effects even beyond the 90-day initial duration of the suspension," Mr. Smith wrote.

Write to Jay Greene at Jay.Greene@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 02, 2017 12:48 ET (17:48 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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