‘Un-American:’ Protests and outrage as Trump’s immigration ban causes chaos – The Verge

Apple, Facebook, Google, and 94 others file opposition to Trump’s immigration ban

2017-02-06T02:42:31-05:00

A host of big-name tech companies including Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft have filed an amicus brief in a Washington state court opposing Donald Trump's executive order on immigration. A total of 97 firms put their names to the document, which supports the state of Washington in its battle against what is widely considered a Muslim ban, each one stating that their "operations are affected" by the executive order.

"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 reads, indicati …

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More than 1,000 Comcast employees nationwide are protesting Trump’s immigration ban

2017-02-02T14:31:43-05:00

An estimated 1,200 Comcast employees left their desks for a rally on Thursday afternoon, marching through downtown Philadelphia in protest of Donald Trump's executive order banning immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries. "Love, not hate, is what makes this country great," chanted the protesters, who began marching through Center City around 2PM ET. It was the second major corporate protest of the week, following a company-endorsed walkout at Google on Tuesday.

Employees organized the rally in a corporate Slack channel, sources told Philly news site Billy Penn. The rally appeared to be taking place in Comcast offices in Portland an …

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Microsoft asks White House for US business exception to travel ban

2017-02-02T13:55:52-05:00

Microsoft has asked the Trump administration to set up a formal exemption process for its recent immigration ban. President and chief legal officer Brad Smith laid out the company's request in an open letter, proposing what Microsoft calls an exemption for "responsible known travelers with pressing needs," sponsored by a US company or university. It would allow visa holders from the seven countries affected by Trump's ban to safely travel outside the US without fear of being denied reentry, on the understanding that they will travel for periods of less than two weeks for either business purposes or family emergencies.

Smith says that Micros …

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Strava’s CEO showed solidarity for immigrants by running a route that spelled ‘Freedom4All’

2017-01-30T20:47:08-05:00

Mark Gainey, the co-founder and chief executive of fitness-tracking app Strava, has a message for immigrants who are impacted by President Donald Trump's recent executive order: "Freedom4All."

Only Gainey didn't just send a memo to his company, or tweet something showing solidarity: he ran 6.8 miles through tech-centric Palo Alto and spelled out the words with his running route.

"This one is for our immigrants … Remove the ban and think clearly about what truly makes this country great … Liberty and freedom," Gainey wrote as the description for his workout, which was posted in the Strava app, of course. His words were punctuated by a somew …

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Microsoft joins Amazon in lawsuit over Trump’s immigration ban

2017-01-30T20:26:11-05:00

Tech companies are joining forces with the Washington state government to fight against Donald Trump's recent immigration-related executive order. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit today against Trump's order, which bars legal immigrants and refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the US and bans Syrian refugees indefinitely.

Now, at least three tech companies - Microsoft, Amazon, and Expedia - are joining that legal fight. A Microsoft spokesman told Reuters that the company is providing information about the effect of the order in order to "be supportive." They also would "be happy to testify furthe …

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Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian says Trump’s immigration ban is ‘deeply un-American’

2017-01-30T19:12:13-05:00

Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and the son of an undocumented US immigrant, says President Donald Trump's immigration ban is both "deeply un-American" and "potentially unconstitutional." Ohanian expressed his views in an open letter to the Reddit community penned under his long-time handle "kn0thing" and posted to the official Reddit blog.

The tech industry figure describes himself as not only the son of an undocumented German immigrant, but also "the great grandson of refugees who fled the Armenian Genocide." Ohanian says welcoming both groups - immigrants and refugees - is America's "unfair advantage," quoting a startup term for …

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Google employees staged a protest over Trump’s immigration ban

2017-01-30T18:39:21-05:00

More than 2,000 Google employees in offices around the world staged a walkout on Monday afternoon in protest of President Donald Trump's executive order banning immigration in seven Muslim-majority countries. Using the hashtag #GooglersUnite, employees tweeted photos and videos of walkout actions around the world, including at headquarters in Mountain View, California.

The protest came after employees donated more than $2 million to a crisis fund that will be distributed among nonprofit groups working to support refugees. Google match employees' donation with $2 million. "This was in direct response to the immigration action," Enzam Hossain …

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Periscope adds ‘Proudly made in America by immigrants’ to app loading screen

2017-01-30T12:23:42-05:00

Following President Trump's executive order banning immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, Silicon Valley has quickly responded with statements, feature updates, and donations to support human rights organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey criticized the policy via a tweet on Saturday - but today the company has added a "Proudly made in America by immigrants" tagline on the Periscope app's loading screen.

"Periscope is built, maintained, and operated by people from many faiths and countries. Without immigrants and refugees, Periscope would not exist," the team wrote in a blog post. "We feel …

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Trump’s executive order spurs Facebook and Twitter checks at the border

2017-01-30T09:55:14-05:00

As airports fell into chaos in the wake of Donald Trump's executive order this weekend, border agents confronted targeted travelers with an unusual request: access to their social media accounts. In Houston, an immigration lawyer named Mana Yegani reported Border Patrol agents checking new arrival's Facebook pages, alongside questions about political views and associations.

Four federal courts have now issued stays on the order, and the fight over its legality continues - but there's reason to think scrutiny of arrivals' Facebook and Twitter accounts will only intensify. On Sunday, multiple outlets reported that the Trump administration was …

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Google Doodle commemorates Japanese-American activist who fought internment

2017-01-30T08:54:14-05:00

Google Doodle depicting Fred Korematsu

Presidential executive orders have come to the fore with the new Trump administration in the White House, which on Friday took the drastic step of banning incoming refugees from seven Muslim-majority nations in and around the Middle East. Google's Doodle today reminds us of an earlier executive order, 9066, which was issued by President Franklin Roosevelt and had the effect of confining close to 120,000 US residents of Japanese descent to internment camps during World War II. It's a dark period in US history, condemned by later presidents as an act of "wartime hysteria," and it's commemorated in order to remind the country's present leaders …

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