Technology executives have for days assailed President Trump's executive order suspending immigration from seven mostly Muslim countries, framing their arguments largely in moral terms.
AFP
Two tech companies -Amazon and Expedia -filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Seattle against the Trump administration, arguing that the order will hurt their businesses.
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Expedia argued that the executive order hurt its ability to recruit employees from overseas, and it also could undermine the core of the company's business as an internet travel company.
"Expedia believes that the executive order jeopardises its corporate mission and could have a detrimental impact on its business and employees, as well as the broader US and global travel and tourism industry," Robert Dzielak, the company's general counsel, wrote in the filing.
AP
Amazon said it was aware of 49 employees out of its US workforce of 180,000 who are from one of the countries identified in the order, nearly all of whom hold citizenship in another country. Seven job candidates, all of them originally from Iran but citizens of other countries, have received employment offers from Amazon.
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The company is considering jobs for the candidates in other countries. In an email to employees, CEO Jeff Bezos, said the firm had expressed its opposition to the order to administration officials and congressional leaders. He said the firm was exploring "other legal options as well."
AFP
Technology companies are bracing for another executive order, expected to be signed by Trump soon, that could affect them further with changes to the system for issuing visas to foreign workers.
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At Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, hundreds of employees crowded into a quad near the main cafeteria to protest the order. Employees carried signs like "Trump, Don't Be Evil" and "Silicon Valley: Built by Immigrants," while others chanted "No Ban, No Wall" into a megaphone.
Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive, told employees at the rally that immigration was "core to the founding of this company ."
AP
When the Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who attended the protests at the San Francisco airport on Saturday, was introduced, the crowd broke into chants of "Sergey, Sergey, Sergey." Brin noted that he came to the US as a 6-year-old refugee from the Soviet Union when nuclear tensions between the two countries were at their peak.
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Microsoft Corp said it was cooperating with the Washington state attorney general's office, which is suing President Trump's order restricting immigration from Muslim countries. Microsoft said it was providing info about the order's impact "in order to be supportive. And we'd be happy to testify further if needed," spokesman Pete Wootton said.