An organization representing more than 500 companies in the Massachusetts tech sector called President Donald Trump's revised immigration ban "illegal" and "disruptive" in a federal court filing on Tuesday.
The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, also known as MassTLC, filed a "friend of the court" brief supporting the state of Hawaii's lawsuit, which calls for a temporary restraining order on Trump's March 6 executive order. MassTLC members include Care.com, Rue La La, Google, EMC, Acquia, Harvard Business School and McGraw-Hill Education.
Separately, a group of 58 tech companies, including Airbnb, Dropbox and Needham-based TripAdvisor, filed their own "friend of the court" brief in opposition to the revised immigration ban.
The revised immigration ban, which takes effect Thursday, prohibits the entry of citizens from five Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days. The original ban, which was introduced in late January, included Iraq in the 90-day ban and called for an indefinite ban of Syrian refugees. But those parts were removed when the revised order was introduced after a federal judge blocked the original ban.
The White House's ban has been defended as Trump's "solemn duty to protect the American people" by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. "As threats to our security continue to evolve and change, common sense dictates that we continually reevaluate and reassess the systems we rely upon to protect our country," Tillerson said when the revised ban was signed.
"We felt it was imperative we file this brief on behalf of the tech industry in Massachusetts ."
MassTLC, however, disagrees.
"We felt it was imperative we file this brief on behalf of the tech industry in Massachusetts and around the nation," Tom Hopcroft, executive director of MassTLC, said in a statement. "Quite simply, this ban has already had an adverse impact on our state's and country's tech leadership and economic prosperity by causing global talent to gravitate to tech hubs outside the country."
In its amicus brief, MassTLC said the revised immigration ban is "arbitrary, illegal and does not serve the public interest," and that it is "fundamentally the same discriminatory 'Muslim Ban' that has been repeatedly enjoined over the last two months."
Speaking to the ban's impact on the tech sector, MassTLC said it will have a "profoundly disruptive effect." The group pointed to the technology industry as a "critical driver of the Massachusetts economy," noting that nearly 400,000 people in the state work in the tech sector or tech-related fields in other sectors, about 13 percent of the state's total workforce.
MassTLC, which is being represented by Boston law firm Foley Hoag, also noted how immigration and international travel has played a vital role in the tech sector and the broader U.S. economy. MassTLC cited various reports supporting this statement, including one finding that immigrants started more than half of U.S. startups that are valued at $1 billion or more. It also said that more than half of Massachusetts-based Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants.
"The technology industry, in Massachusetts as elsewhere, thrives on a culture of diversity, inclusivity, and equal opportunity. The Revised Travel Ban is antithetical to these values," MassTLC said. "It is a patently illegal and discriminatory attempt to inflict harm upon a religious minority."
You can view MassTLC's entire amicus brief right here:
