Microsoft to feds: Please exempt our immigrant workers hit by travel ban

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Microsoft has formally asked the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security to grant it and other companies an exemption to the Trump administration’s executive order that restricts entry or re-entry of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries. The order, which was signed last Friday, affects immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Los Angeles “enjoined and restrained” the president’s executive order for the time being—following similar temporary restraining orders that other judges have also issued in recent days in related lawsuits filed elsewhere. While the executive order is theoretically halted for the time being, the various restraining orders around the country don’t provide any predictable, long-term solution as of yet, legal experts say.

“This is very disruptive to a business model,” Lenni Benson, an immigration law professor at New York Law School, told Ars, noting that many companies are starting to ponder what the long-term ramifications of such a ban are, especially if it is eventually upheld in court.

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Source: Ars Technica – Microsoft to feds: Please exempt our immigrant workers hit by travel ban