Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Salesforce and Spotify are among the tech companies joining the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in asking a federal judge to block the White House’s July 6 directive to bar international students from staying in the country if their colleges move largely online in the fall due to pandemic lockdowns. (Axios)

Talking point: The U.S. has so far allowed international students to stay on visa throughout the pandemic by taking more online courses than usually permitted. The new rule revokes this allowance—a decision tech companies say does not consider “the loss of the tens of billions of dollars that international students contribute to U.S. GDP each year,” according to a court filing. International students in the U.S. contributed nearly US$41 billion to the economy in the 2018–2019 academic year, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators. In an amicus brief filed Monday, the companies sided with Harvard and MIT, which filed a lawsuit last week, and said they would be “harmed substantially” if the students were removed. “Dropbox wouldn’t exist without immigrants,” a spokesperson for the company, which is part of the brief, told Protocol. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia are also suing the government on the issue. A federal judge is expected to rule by Wednesday.