Technology

Amazon CEO comes out against immigration order

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote a letter to his company’s employees on Monday criticizing President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S.

“This executive order is one we do not support,” Bezos wrote, adding that Amazon was reaching out to lawmakers to pursue legislative options. “Our public policy team in D.C. has reached out to senior administration officials to make our opposition clear.” 

Bezos, who is also the owner of the Washington Post, said Amazon would support the Washington State attorney general who is filing a lawsuit against Trump’s order, the Verge reports. Washington is the first state to file a suit against the order. 

Microsoft is also supporting the Washington State AG’s suit. A Microsoft spokesperson told The Hill to testify in support of the AG’s suit if necessary. 

Over the weekend, Amazon vice president of human resources Beth Galetti wrote a more general letter to the company’s employees about Trump’s order.

“As we’ve grown the company, we’ve worked hard to attract talented people from all over the world, and we believe this is one of the things that makes Amazon great — a diverse workforce helps us build better products for customers,” Galetti’s letter read.

Amazon joins a slew of tech companies that blasted Trump’s executive actions over the weekend and have offered recourse to affected employees. The tech industry employs many skilled workers from overseas.

This story was updated on Jan. 30 at 9:00 p.m.