Tech companies join in support ‘Dreamers,’ challenging Trump

By Salvador Rodriguez

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google, Microsoft Corp and other major tech companies were poised on Wednesday to join a legal challenge against a decision to end protections against deportation for immigrants brought into the United States illegally as children, the companies told Reuters.

A legal briefing on the so-called Dreamers program, which the Trump administration has decided to rescind, was expected to be filed Wednesday afternoon, one of the companies, IBM Corp, said.

The filing, also supported by ride hailing service Lyft, is in support of a lawsuit filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra in the Northern District of California, Lyft said.

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The lawsuit challenges Trump’s September decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was established by former U.S. President Barack Obama in 2012. DACA is set to expire in March.

“DACA’s rescission will inflict serious harm on U.S. companies, all workers, and the American economy as a whole,” the filing reads, according to a draft of the amicus brief provided by one of the companies.

A week ago, dozens of tech companies, including Apple Inc , Google, Microsoft, Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc and others formed The Coalition for the American Dream, a group calling for bipartisan legislation this year that would give illegal immigrants a path to permanent residency. Reuters was first to report that the coalition was being formed.

About 900,000 immigrants have been shielded from deportation under the DACA program.

(Reporting by Salvador Rodriguez; Additional reporting by Jeffrey Dastin; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Tom Brown)