SUMMARY
- DOJ claims SpaceX biased against refugees and asylum seekers in hiring.
- Investigation reveals out of 10,000 hires, only one identified openly as an asylee.
- Lawsuit seeks fair treatment, compensation, and policy reforms from SpaceX.
SpaceX, Elon Musk's pioneering space venture, came under the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) spotlight last Thursday. The reason? The DOJ suggests that the space company had a bias against hiring refugees and asylum seekers.
Between 2018 and 2022, SpaceX apparently maintained that U.S. export control laws restricted its employment pool to U.S. citizens and those holding permanent residency. However, the DOJ begs to differ.
The department first had its suspicions about SpaceX's hiring processes in June 2020, following a report of employment discrimination from a non-U.S. citizen. This investigation unearthed concerning patterns. It seemed that SpaceX wasn't just sidelining asylum seekers and refugees due to their citizenship status, but was, in essence, placing a de facto ban on their employment. And this was regardless of their credentials, which is a violation of federal laws, as pointed out by Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
Clarke elaborated on the findings, shedding light on SpaceX's behavior towards this demographic. Recruiters and top-tier officials at SpaceX seemed to take steps that deterred refugees and asylees from even attempting to seek a job at the firm.
Numbers, as they say, never lie. Based on SpaceX's own records, the DOJ discovered that out of more than 10,000 hires across nearly four years, the company had onboarded just one person who openly identified as an asylee during his application. Moreover, this lone recruitment took place after the DOJ had already initiated their investigation into SpaceX.
While SpaceX remained tight-lipped, not offering any comments when approached by media channels like CNBC, the suit is currently lodged in the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an arm of the DOJ. The lawsuit's objectives are clear: compensation and fair consideration for those discouraged or overlooked due to the alleged bias, alongside imposing civil penalties and ushering in policy reforms.
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