Tech giant Mozilla slams Trump's latest immigration crackdown: 'A dangerous precedent'

Technology firm Mozilla, the creators of the popular Firefox web browser, has spoken out against US president Donald Trump's latest executive order on immigration, claiming the controversial move will both hurt its business and set "a dangerous precedent."

"As a tech company, and to fulfil our mission to protect and advance the internet as a global public resource, we believe ideas and innovations must flow freely across borders," said Denelle Dixon-Thayer, Mozilla's chief legal and business officer in a statement on 6 March.

This week, members of the Trump administration revealed an updated immigration crackdown proposal after a previous order was ruled illegal by a US court.

When it was first announced in January 2017, the plans were quickly branded a "Muslim ban."

Yet the revised executive order, critics say, remains extremely controversial. It dropped Iraq from the list of banned countries, but retained a 90-day travel restriction on the Muslim-majority nations of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

"We are against this executive order for the same reasons we opposed its largely identical predecessor," Dixon-Thayer said. "A month may have passed, but it seems clear that little, if any, progress was made on the thinking behind this action."

She said the order will damage Mozilla as a business and "undermine trust" in US immigration law, adding: "It sets a dangerous precedent that poses risks to international cooperation, including those required to sustain the health of the internet."

The statement continued: "The ability for individuals, and the ideas and expertise they carry with them, to travel across borders is central to the creation of the technologies and standards that power the open internet. We will continue to fight."

The Mozilla statement comes after almost 100 separate tech companies pledged to combat Trump's proposals on travel via the courts, claiming it had "immediate, adverse effects on the employees of American businesses".

Signatures included US-based goliaths Facebook, Apple and Google.

The companies will only be bolstered by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which, in a blog post on 6 March, stated: "The president promised to ban Muslims from the United States, and the ban is his attempt to make good on that unconstitutional and indefensible goal."

A slew of lawsuits have already been filed in states across America opposing the plans, with further court rulings expected to soon be on the horizon. One politician, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, has called the plans "meanspirited and un-American."

And as the order evolves, more tech firms will no doubt come forward. When the first order was initially announced, high-profile figures in the industry, including Apple chief executive Tim Cook and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, quickly spoke out.

"Apple believes deeply in the importance of immigration – both to our company and to our nation's future," Cook said at the time. He added: "Apple would not exist without immigration, let alone thrive and innovate the way we do."

Zuckerberg noted: "Expanding the focus of law enforcement beyond people who are real threats would make all Americans less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don't pose a threat will live in fear of deportation."

National security chiefs in the US, including officials from the National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), recently argued the order may aid Isis terrorists and could have a "devastating" humanitarian impact.