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The United States Department of Justice announced Thursday that it filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk-owned SpaceX for discriminating against refugees and asylees in their hiring process. The lawsuit alleges that the company routinely discouraged refugees and asylees from applying and refused to consider them between September 2018 and May 2022. This could be in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
The Department of Justice is a federal executive department of the US government that is tasked with the enforcement of federal law in the country. The department is headed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who reports directly to the president.
The department alleges that SpaceX wrongly claimed that it can only hire US citizens and lawful permanent residents (green card holders), saying it was mandated by “export control laws.” According to the department, export control laws don’t call for such hiring restrictions. Also, asylees and refugees reportedly stand on equal footing with American citizens and permanent residents under the export control laws.
This, according to the department, means that SpaceX can hire refugees and asylees for the same positions that they would hire citizens and permanent residents. Also, after being hired, these asylees and refugees can access information and materials that come under export controls without any additional government approval.
“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,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in a press statement.
“Our investigation also found that SpaceX recruiters and high-level officials took actions that actively discouraged asylees and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company. 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. Through this lawsuit we will hold SpaceX 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,” added Clarke.
Elon Musk denied the department’s claims in a post on the platform X, formerly Twitter. He claimed that the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) force SpaceX to only hire people who are permanent residents to ensure that the company’s technology does not fall into the wrong hands.
In another post, he alleges that SpaceX was repeatedly told not to hire anyone who is not a permanent resident. Musk added that the company was not even allowed to hire Canadian citizens despite the country being part of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)
