Justice Department sues SpaceX of hiring bias against refugees

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons (2022)

Christian Davenport for the Washington Post reports that the Justice Department filed suit today against Elon Musk’s SpaceX, alleging the company routinely discriminated against asylum seekers and refugees in hiring.  Musk was born in South Africa. 

“According to the lawsuit, SpaceX officials said on numerous occasions between 2018 and last year that it could hire only U.S. citizens and green-card holders because of restrictive export control laws governing the use of rocket and missile technology. The government cited several cases in which the company made this assertion publicly and listed citizenship as a requirement in job postings, even though `“export control laws impose no such hiring restrictions.’”

UPDATE (Aug. 25):  The U.S. Department of Justice news release on the lawsuit is here.

KJ