US sues Musk's SpaceX over alleged hiring discrimination against asylees and refugees
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is suing SpaceX, claiming that Elon Musk's aerospace company exhibited unlawful employment discrimination in its employment procedures against refugees and individuals seeking asylum.
According to the lawsuit, between September 2018 and May 2022 SpaceX consistently deterred refugees and asylees from submitting applications and did not hire or even consider them due to their citizenship status, which goes against the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
Over multiple years, in their job advertisements and public statements, SpaceX inaccurately stated that "export control laws", a set of federal guidelines, limited their hiring exclusively to US citizens and those with lawful permanent residency, often called "green card holders".
In reality, these export control laws do not set any such employment constraints, the DOJ said.
“Our 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,” Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s civil rights division, said in a statement.
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“Asylees and refugees have overcome many obstacles in their lives, and unlawful employment discrimination based on their citizenship status should not be one of them.”
Clarke added that through the lawsuit, SpaceX will be held accountable for its “illegal employment practices and “seek relief that allows asylees and refugees to fairly compete for job opportunities and contribute their talents to SpaceX’s workforce”.
The DOJ lawsuit seeks to win “fair consideration and back pay for asylees and refugees who were deterred or denied employment at SpaceX due to the alleged discrimination”, as well as civil penalties and policy changes from the company, NBC News reported.
The DOJ highlighted that in a span of almost four years, spanning over 10,000 recruitments, the firm employed just one person who identified as an asylee in their application.
The employment took place roughly four months after the DOJ informed SpaceX of its ongoing probe.
In 2021, the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) of the DOJ claimed that SpaceX was resisting a subpoena in connection to their inquiry. The IER sought a judicial directive to ensure SpaceX furnished the required hiring-related documents.
Although SpaceX appealed to a DOJ administrative body to dismiss the subpoena, claiming that it went beyond IER’s jurisdiction, the appeal was denied.
The IER initiated its investigation after a man named Fabian Hutter voiced concerns about SpaceX's discriminatory practices.
Hunter, who according to SpaceX is a “lawful, permanent US resident holding dual citizenship from Austria and Canada", alleged that during his March 2020 interview for a technical strategy associate role, the company inquired about his citizenship status.
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