Elon Musk’s company Space X has been sued by the Justice Department because the billionaire refused to hire asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.
“The lawsuit alleges that, from at least September 2018 to May 2022, SpaceX routinely discouraged asylees and refugees from applying and refused to hire or consider them, because of their citizenship status, in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
DoJ says that Space X wrongly claimed in its advertisements and online postings that the company could only hire U.S. citizens and green card holders because of export control laws.
The lawsuit pointed to a Twitter post by Musk claiming that “U.S. law requires at least a green card to be hired at SpaceX, as rockets are advanced weapons technology.”
Musk is accusing DoJ and by extension, the Biden administration of the “weaponization of the DOJ for political purposes.”
In a post on X, the SpaceX CEO said the company “was told repeatedly that hiring anyone who was not a permanent resident of the United States would violate international arms trafficking law, which would be a criminal offense.”
U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s civil rights division said a DOJ investigation found that SpaceX “failed to fairly consider or hire asylees and refugees because of their citizenship status and imposed what amounted to a ban on their hire regardless of their qualification, in violation of federal law”.
Clarke also said SpaceX recruiters and high-level officials “actively discouraged” asylum recipients and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company.
Doj wants back wages and fair consideration for asylum recipients and refugees who were denied employment at Space X. The would be a fairly large number because any immigrant or asylum seeker who applied for a position at Space X would be in line to receive compensation.
According to the complaint, Musk also said in a video from an international space conference in 2016 that “unless [you] can somehow get a green card, we are legally prevented from hiring anyone.”
The Justice Department is asking an administrative law judge to order SpaceX to stop the allegedly illegal hiring practice, pay an unspecified civil penalty, consider hiring applicants and potential applicants impacted by the policy and provide back pay to those affected.
The complaint notes that SpaceX hired for numerous positions with no connection to sensitive technology, like cooks, dishwashers and baristas. It’s unclear whether the Justice Department is claiming the firm turned away applicants for such jobs because they didn’t have a green card — the permit the U.S. government issues to lawful permanent residents.
The bottom line is that Musk and Space X believed they were acting in accordance with the law, and the government now says — four years after the fact — that they weren’t.
It would seem that the Biden administration wants to set an example for large companies that aren’t hiring enough immigrants and asylum seekers.
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