Although today’s order was presented as a new Executive Order on immigration, the few changes in it – including allowing exceptions for current visa holders and permanent residents – fundamentally fail to address the issues we had with the previous order. A month may have passed, but it seems clear that little (if any) progress was made on the thinking behind this action.
We are against this Executive Order for the same reasons we opposed its (largely identical) predecessor. As a tech company, and to fulfill our mission to protect and advance the internet as a global public resource, we believe ideas and innovations must flow freely across borders. This order fails to meet that standard for many reasons:
- It damages Mozilla, the United States, and the global technology industry.
- It undermines trust in U.S. immigration law.
- It sets a dangerous precedent that poses risks to international cooperation, including those required to sustain the health of the internet.
- It is fundamentally misplaced and misguided as a reaction to its ostensible target of protecting national security.
These restrictions are significant and have created a negative impact to Mozilla and our operations, especially as a mission-based organization and global community with international scope and influence over the health of the internet.
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 for more trust and transparency across organizations and borders to help protect the health of the internet and to nurture the innovation needed to advance the internet.
