Google has asked over a hundred employees travelling abroad after US President Donald Trump's order against immigrants to return to the US immediately. The order bans people from seven majority-Muslim nations from entering the US for a total of ninety days.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai slammed Trump's move in a note to employees on Friday saying - "It's painful to see the personal cost of this order on our colleagues." Reportedly, more than a hundred company staff have been affected by the order. He further added that the tech company has always made its view on immigration issues known publicly and will continue to do so.
Post Trump's order, citizens of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Libya will be banned from entering the US for the period of ninety days, while the government decides on the policy of safely admitting visitors.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a directive on Friday afternoon to enforce the order as soon as possible. The ramifications of the decision started surfacing immediately when some visa and green-card holders were blocked from boarding flights to the US after the order. Additionally, several people were detained at the US airports as well on arrival of the immigrants, the New York Times reported.
The employees in question work in the US but happened to be abroad either on work assignments or vacations when the order too place. One employee flied back from a trip to New Zealand to make it into the US before the order was finally signed, Google's Pichai wrote in his note. However, Google declined to comment on whether any employees were detained or blocked from boarding flights.
Ava Benach, a partner at immigration law firm Benach Collopy LLP, said that they are advising their clients from those seven countries with green cards or any type of H-1B visa not to travel outside the US for the time being because it is not sure whether a green card holder from these seven countries can return to the US now but it is fairly clear that H-1B visa holders cannot.
Among other companies, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday that he was "concerned" by Trump's recent moves to restrict immigration. Microsoft inserted language in a securities filing on Thursday on the issue, cautioning investors that immigration restrictions "may inhibit our ability to adequately staff our research and development efforts."