The Department of Justice sued Elon Musk’s SpaceX, claiming the company discriminated against refugees and asylum seekers.
The lawsuit alleges SpaceX “wrongly claimed” that export control laws prevented it from hiring those who are not US citizens or lawful permanent residents.
“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, assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
Clarke also said that the DOJ’s investigation found “SpaceX recruiters and high-level officials took actions that actively discouraged asylees and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company.”
The DOJ has been investigating SpaceX’s hiring practices that effected applicants between 2018 and 2022 since June 2022, when it received a discrimination complaint from a non-US citizen.
A non-citizen man named Fabian Hutter filed the compliant during a March 2020 interview during which he was asked about his citizenship status.
The lawsuit seeks “fair consideration and back pay for asylees and refugees who were deterred or denied employment at SpaceX due to the alleged discrimination” in addition to civil penalties and policy changes from the company.
Musk Responds on X
News of the lawsuit becoming public attracted opinions from other space industry leaders.
Tom Mueller, CEO of Impulse Space – which seeks to launch the first commercial mission to Mars by 2026, called out the DOJ’s hypocrisy.
“So, if I let a non-US citizen see our rocket hardware, I go to ITAR jail, but if i don’t hire a non US citizen I get sued by DoJ. Got it,” he posted on X.
Musk responded to the post, “Exactly. SpaceX 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. We couldn’t even hire Canadian citizens, despite Canada being part of NORAD!”
“This is yet another case of weaponization of the DOJ for political purposes.”
The DOJ is unbelievably stupid suing SpaceX because they have not hired refugees and asylum seekers instead of United State citizens. This kind of thing has got to be stopped. There are plenty of citizens from other countries that are waiting to legally get into our Country. Why is the stupid ass DOJ trying to sue SpaceX for not hiring illegals. These Democratic dummies need to be put our of running anything that would let them make decisions before we are a socialist country.
citizens SHOULD get favored over non-citizens in Every country!