58 technology companies have signed an amicus curiae brief against President Trump’s latest immigration order, filed in a challenge brought upon the order in the state of Hawaii. However, tech giants such as Apple, Google and Facebook have not joined them.
The new brief focuses mainly on the impact that the companies claim the order will have on the technology industry, claiming that employees of their company refused to return home for fear of not being allowed back into the United States, and having to cancel an event for Syrian refugees who had become technology-based entrepreneurs.
A section of the brief details exactly why they are against the order:
President Trump’s new travel ban is no different. It will inflict the same substantial and irreparable harm upon U.S. companies and their employees. And in implementing the promise of a “Muslim ban,” the new travel ban suffers from many of the same defects as the first travel ban. It violates the prohibition against nationality-based discrimination that Congress established through the Immigration and Nationality Act. It exceeds the authority granted to the Executive. It is arbitrary and overbroad in scope. And it impermissibly discriminates on the basis of 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 the constitutional 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 ban— it should be enjoined nationwide.
The brief currently has less than half of the 127 signatories who opposed the President’s initial executive order on immigration last month. Airbnb, Lyft, Patreon, and Kickstarter were some of the names still on the list. Notably absent however were companies who had signed on to the earlier effort, including eBay, Intel, Netflix, Twitter, and as mentioned, Apple, Alphabet, and Facebook. The absence of Twitter is particularly curious, since their CEO is also the CEO of Square, one of the current 58 signatories.
Robert Atkins, a New York lawyer and co-author of the brief said that companies could still join the fight against the order. “We do expect the group to expand,” he said. A spokesman for Uber Technologies Inc told Reuters that they were currently part-way through the process to add their name to the brief.
Jack Hadfield is a student at the University of Warwick and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @ToryBastard_ or on Gab @JH.
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