The Department of Justice is investigating Elon Musk’s SpaceX for allegedly favoring United States citizens in the company’s hiring decisions.
“Within five seconds, I knew this wasn’t a real interview,” said Fabian Hutter, a lawful American resident who said SpaceX asked him about his citizenship status after he applied for a job with the company.
Hutter claimed that the interview he was granted was a formality, with the company already deciding it was not going to hire him based on his citizenship. He then filed a complaint with the DOJ’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, which is responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The company was informed by the DOJ that an investigation was underway and issued subpoenas requesting documentation “related to how the company hires.”
But SpaceX has refused to comply with the DOJ’s subpoena, instead only sending over an I-9 form spreadsheet that contained employee information but did not provide any supporting documentation.
“Hutter gave an unimpressive screening interview, and SpaceX rejected his application at that point; in fact, as of July 1, 2020, SpaceX had rejected every candidate it gave a technical screening interview to and had hired no one for the position,” the company said of Hutter’s discrimination allegations in a court filing.
SpaceX acknowledged that “a SpaceX recruiter asked Hutter to confirm his citizenship and immigration status, reiterating what was in the job posting, namely, that federal regulations impose restrictions on SpaceX’s employment of non-US persons.”
“Hutter responded by again representing that he was authorized to work in the United States. There was no further discussion of his citizenship or immigration status,” SpaceX said in the filing.
SpaceX can hire non-U.S. citizens who have legal permanent residency under current law, which only allows U.S. citizens or green card holders to have access to digital items on the U.S. Munitions List.
“Apparently, Hutter could not conceive of being rejected for legitimate reasons, and so ascribed SpaceX’s decision to discriminatory animus based on his citizenship, despite the fact that SpaceX selected him for an interview from among hundreds of applicants knowing he was not a U.S. citizen,” SpaceX said.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
