Elon Musk’s SpaceX has for years discriminated against refugees and asylum seekers seeking work at the rocket company, U.S. federal prosecutors said in a statement. litigation Submit on Thursday.
litigation claim From at least September 2018 through May 2022, SpaceX routinely blocked asylee and refugee applications and refused to hire or consider them because their citizenship status violated the Immigration and Nationality Act.
A representative for SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
Musk has said in the past that SpaceX cannot hire foreigners unless they have a green card, which seems to suggest that this is because of restrictions on sharing information related to rocket technology, known as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). .
Musk told a space conference in 2016: “If you’re working on rocket technology, it’s considered an advanced weapon technology. So even a normal work visa isn’t enough unless you get a secretary of defense.” special permission of the Secretary of State.”
In its complaint, the Justice Department said SpaceX falsely claimed in a job posting under federal export control laws that it could only hire U.S. citizens and green card holders. Such hiring restrictions are not imposed by such laws, the agency said.
The origin of the probe
The Justice Department has been investigating SpaceX’s hiring practices since 2020, after an individual disclosed in an interview that he was neither a U.S. citizen nor a lawful permanent resident and claimed he was not hired by SpaceX. Investigating SpaceX’s hiring practices. June 2021, a federal judge rule SpaceX must turn over its hiring records as part of the investigation.
“Our investigation also found that SpaceX recruiters and senior officials took actions that actively discouraged asylum seekers and refugees from seeking employment at the company,” Justice Department civil rights chief Kristen Clarke said in a statement. stated in a statement.
The complaint, filed with a Justice Department administrative judge in Washington, is the latest in a string of high-profile cases brought by U.S. federal prosecutors over discriminatory job postings and other allegations.
Walmart Inc., CarMax Inc., Capital One Financial Corp. and Axis Analytics LLC settled with the Justice Department in September following similar allegations targeting job postings for non-U.S. citizens, the agency said. In June, audit firm KPMG LLP and 15 other employers also settled with the institution over hiring bias on the university’s careers service website. The agency said it had collected $1.1 million in civil penalties from 20 employers.
additional legal hurdles
Musk’s electric carmaker, Tesla Inc., has faced complaints from black workers that managers at its Fremont, Calif., factory turned a blind eye to widespread racial slurs on the assembly line and did nothing to clean up the strip. Graffiti with swastikas and other symbols of hate has been slow to move. scrawled in common areas.
In a separate case, Tesla is fighting allegations by the California Department of Civil Rights that hundreds of African-American workers at its factories have been abused, including harassment, unequal pay and retaliation.
SpaceX has also faced multiple lawsuits in recent years from former employees alleging discrimination based on age, race and disability. Earlier this month, a former SpaceX technician sued the company in California state court, alleging he suffered physical disability harassment and retaliation in the workplace.
In the SpaceX lawsuit on Thursday, U.S. federal prosecutors asked the court to award unpaid wages and unspecified civil penalties to asylum seekers and refugees who claim SpaceX was denied employment, the indictment said.
Under those laws, SpaceX can hire refugees for the same positions as U.S. citizens, the agency said. It added that once hired, asylum seekers and refugees can access export-controlled information and materials like U.S. citizens and green card holders without additional government approval.
The Justice Department lawsuit alleges that SpaceX discriminated against asylum seekers and refugees based on citizenship at multiple stages of the hiring process.
For example, in 2020, a SpaceX engineer posted a job posting on Georgia Tech’s college career fair chat forum, stating that “unfortunately, you must be a U.S. citizen” to apply, even though the position does not require U.S. citizenship. citizenship, the complaint said.
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