Executives and lawyers from some of the biggest tech companies in US meet to discuss lawsuit against new immigration order.
The meeting, called by GitHub, a company that makes several prominent software tools, expected to be host to some of the most well-known brands in the world, a spokesman for the gathering announced.
An amicus curiae, “a friend of the court” in less fancy terms, enables legal arguments to be filed by third parties in a court case who are themselves not personally involved in the legal proceedings but feel they have legal arguments, facts or information they deem the presiding judge should be in receipt of.
Some of the invited attendees to the meeting included Google, Airbnb, and Netflix, and while at the time of going to press the meetings were ongoing, none of the above had either denied or confirmed their presence at the event. Other companies invited included Adobe, Box Inc., Mozilla, Reddit, SpaceX, Yelp Inc and Lithium.
Silicon Valley tech companies have been some of the loudest critics of Trump’s travel ban. The impact on their business has been immediate. The sector relies heavily on talent from around the world. An internal memo by Google’s Sundar Pichai (no doubt intended to be leaked publicly) raised his concerns and stated that the ban had affected more than 100 Google staff directly:
“It’s painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook released a similar memo at Apple:
“Apple would not exist without immigration, let alone thrive and innovate the way we do. I’ve heard from many of you who are deeply concerned about the executive order issued yesterday restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. I share your concerns. It is not a policy we support.”
In separate moves, both Amazon.com and Expedia Inc. filed motions in support of a lawsuit filed by the Washington state attorney general, with both companies declaring the travel ban was adversely affecting their business.
Last Saturday, Google co-founder Sergey Brin joined protesters at an airport, with unconfirmed reports quoting Brin as saying “I’m an immigrant as well.”
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