San Francisco (AFP)

Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and other pillars of technology are trying to make their arguments against the visa freeze decided in June by President Donald Trump, which they say harms all players in the American economy.

In a document supporting a US Chamber of Commerce complaint against the government, some 50 businesses and organizations say freezing green cards and some work visas "will stunt innovation, hinder growth and ultimately hurt. irreparable to workers, businesses and the American economy in general. "

The H-1B visas widely used in the high-tech sector are particularly crucial, they assure.

The tech giants have decided to make their voices heard through an "amicus curiae", which allows an actor not party to a dispute to intervene in the procedure to help a legal body to make its decision.

Donald Trump assured that he wanted to help American workers, faced with the sharp rise in unemployment (10.2% of the working population in July against 3.5% in February), linked to the pandemic.

But Silicon Valley, the birthplace of start-ups and unicorns who have become global leaders, depends heavily on skilled immigrants to meet the high demand for engineers, data scientists, IT developers, etc.

"For decades, American companies have welcomed thousands of motivated and ultra-skilled workers from abroad via temporary visa programs," the signatories recalled.

H-1B visas are granted to 85,000 people each year. The decree signed in June also pauses L visas, used by multinationals to transfer their own employees, most J visas used for student researchers and other work visas.

These programs have "attracted the best talent, including engineers, doctors, bankers, researchers, computer developers and leaders in technology - at a time when the global competition to attract the best is growing. stronger, ”the organizations argue.

They point out that presidents from both political parties have praised these visas in the past.

At the announcement of Donald Trump, many leaders of groups and subsidiaries in Silicon Valley, themselves from an immigrant background, were indignant on Twitter.

"In my experience, these (technological) skills allow jobs to be created", reacted Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla born in South Africa, "not at all agree" with the presidential decision.

© 2020 AFP