Amazon, Starbucks, Microsoft take on Trump over undocumented children

A trio of top brands have thrown their weight behind a legal challenge to Donald Trump's plan to end protection for undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children.

The US president announced this week that he would scrap the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, introduced by his predecessor Barack Obama, that gives work permits to those who arrived in the country as children—known as "Dreamers".

The attorneys-general of 15 US states have filed a lawsuit to stop the move.

And Amazon, Starbucks and Microsoft, which are all based in Washington state, have filed sworn statements supporting the action, the Financial Times reports.

Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft, said earlier this week that the software giant had 39 employees protected under DACA. He said that ending the programme would be a "big step back" for the US.

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg yesterday described Trump’s announcement as a "sad day for our country", adding: "The decision to end DACA is not just wrong, it is particularly cruel to offer young people the American Dream, encourage them to come out of the shadows and trust our government and then punish them for it."

Speculation has been rife in recent months that Zuckerberg, 33, could be preparing to launch a bid to run for US president in 2020.