Nearly 100 Tech Companies Oppose Trump's Muslim Ban

Nearly 100 tech companies—including Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and Google—filed a legal brief Sunday night opposing Donald Trump's executive order banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. The filing declares that the Muslim ban would not only hurt their business operations, but the companies wouldn't be able to lure and keep the most talent individuals from all around the world.

"The Order represents a significant departure from the principles of fairness and predictability that have governed the immigration system of the United States for more than fifty years," the brief said, per the Washington Post. "The Order makes it more difficult and expensive for U.S. companies to recruit, hire, and retain some of the world’s best employees. It disrupts ongoing business operations. And it threatens companies’ ability to attract talent, business, and investment to the United States."

The legal brief was filed in opposition to the Department of Justice's appeal of the ruling handed down by U.S. District Judge James Robart where he placed a temporary restraining order, or TRO, on Trump's executive order, which put an immediate nationwide halt on the ban. On Tuesday (Feb. 7), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hold an hour-long argument over the phone before coming to a decision within the next few days.

The brief points out that more than 200 companies on the Fortune 500 list—Apple, Ford, AT&T, McDonald's, Disney, to name a few—were founded by either immigrants or their children, and argues that immigration and economic growth are "intimately tied" to one another.