The United States’s most prominent tech giants, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon among others have joined hands to lend support to a lawsuit challenging President Donald’s Trump suspension of new visas for guest workers in the country. In an amicus brief filed on Monday by 50 organisation, it have been argued that new restrictions will affect the development in country’s economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In June, President Donald Trump had blocked temporary worker’s entry into the state including highly skilled talent sought by tech firms. The proclamation suspended a group of non-immigrant visa programs, including H-1B visas that enables many technology firms to hire engineers.
The purported justification of the suspension was said to be the protection of unemployed Americans from the threat of competition amid the scarcity of jobs in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.
“The president’s suspension of non-immigrant visa programs, supposedly to ‘protect’ American workers, actually harms those workers, their employers, and the economy,” the brief supported by more than 50 tech firms and organisations said.
“Beyond the overwhelming data undermining the proclamation’s purported rationale, the administration’s actions send a fundamentally un-American message to those abroad who might otherwise have brought their skills and ingenuity to the United States.”
“Suspension of visa programs will stifle innovation, hinder growth, and ultimately harm US workers, businesses, and the economy more broadly in irreparable ways,” the filing argued.
Many tech leaders including Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai have also voiced against the suspension.
“Immigration has contributed immensely to America’s economic success, making it a global leader in tech, and also Google the company it is today. Disappointed by today’s proclamation – we’ll continue to stand with immigrants and work to expand opportunity for all,” Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai had said in a tweet.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said he was “deeply disappointed” by the new proclamation. “Like Apple, this nation of immigrants has always found strength in our diversity, and hope in the enduring promise of the American Dream. There is no new prosperity without both. Deeply disappointed by this proclamation,” he had said.
