Travel ban: Tech companies are backing out

When the executive orders for the first travel ban came, many technology companies took a stand against it in court. Now, it seems that Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc are among the 60 other technology companies that have backed away from the legal fight against U.S president Donald Trump’s travel ban. The companies have decided not to put their weight or efforts behind a lawsuit that sought to block the second version of his executive travel ban orders.

Travel ban can impact people travelling from Pakistan and other Asian regions

On Tuesday, a legal brief was filed in the federal court in Hawaii on behalf of the Silicon Valley companies that listed the support of 58 countries against implementation of the ban. This is less than half the 127 signatories that filed an appeal in the court last month after the first travel ban. The travel band banned people from travelling from certain countries which the administration deemed as a security risk. The companies that did sign the brief are Airbnb Inc, Dropbox and Kickstarter. Major companies in the Silicon valley that were part of the signatories of the first brief but not this one include, Microsoft Corp, Ebay Inc, Intel Corp, Netflix and Twitter.

Read: Trump probably ends global trade and forces choice between China or the US

Even without the support of the major tech companies it seems that the lawsuit might succeed. The judge in Honolulu gave out an emergency halt to the executive travel band that aimed to temporarily bar the entry of most refugees and Muslims from major countries. The halt is temporary. The judge claimed that the ban was an unprecedented judicial overreach while Trump termed as a ban necessary for U.S national security.

It is to be noted that a lot of tech companies rely on skilled workers from overseas in many service areas. The companies played a large role in putting a halt to the first version of the executive ban, which a Seattle judge put a hold to in February.

Image via Kare11