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The United States Department of Justice is investigating Elon Musk’s SpaceX over whether the company discriminates against non-US citizens in its recruiting practices, according to court documents filed Thursday.
The DOJ’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Division received a complaint of job discrimination from a non-U.S. Citizen who alleged that the company discriminated against him based on his citizenship.
The indictment alleges that on or about March 10, 2020, during the Charging Party interview for the position of Technology Strategy Associate, SpaceX inquired about his citizenship status and ultimately did not hire him for the position because he is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, ”DOJ attorney Lisa Sandoval wrote in a complaint filed Thursday.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment.
SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles, California.
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The Immigrant and Employee Rights (IER) Department says it notified SpaceX by email on June 8 that it had opened an investigation and requested SpaceX to provide information and documents pertaining to its hiring and employment verification processes.
The complaint says SpaceX responded in August and sent the DOJ a Form I-9 spreadsheet with information about employees dating back to June 2019. But SpaceX declined the DOJ’s request ‘to produce supporting documentation of Form I-9 , such as copies of employees’ ‘passports, driver’s licenses or social security cards,’ Sandoval wrote.
IER was subsequently subpoenaed on Oct. 7, but the complaint alleges that SpaceX refused to produce the subpoenaed documents.
SpaceX petitioned a DOJ administrative court to dismiss the subpoena on the grounds that it exceeded the scope of IER’s authority, but that petition was denied and SpaceX was ordered to comply. IPR says SpaceX acknowledged the injunction on Dec. 11, but IPR said “it does not intend to provide additional information in response to the administrative subpoena.”
The DOJ’s IER argues that the subpoenaed documents are relevant because they show the extent to which SpaceX hires non-US citizens, and says it’s not a pain, even though SpaceX has told the IER it would have to manually retrieve each document.
The Justice Department is asking the court for an order to require SpaceX to comply with the subpoena within two weeks.
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