Elon Musk Hits Back at DOJ over Lawsuit Accusing SpaceX of Hiring Discrimination
The new space race is on. Why is the DOJ is targeting the most successful private space firm our country has?
Late last week the U.S. Justice Department sued Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, for allegedly discriminating against asylum recipients and refugees in hiring.
“The lawsuit alleges that, from at least September 2018 to May 2022, SpaceX routinely discouraged asylees and refugees from applying and refused to hire or consider them, because of their citizenship status, in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
In job postings and public statements over several years, SpaceX wrongly claimed that under federal regulations known as export control laws, SpaceX could hire only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, sometimes referred to as “green card holders,” the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department also pointed to online posts from the company’s billionaire owner Musk as example of “discriminatory public statements.”
The lawsuit cited a June 2020 post on X, formerly called Twitter, by CEO Musk to his then 36 million followers that said: “U.S. law requires at least a green card to be hired at SpaceX, as rockets are advanced weapons technology.”
Now Musk is hitting back.
Musk took to X, the social media platform he acquired that was formerly known as Twitter, and posted in response to a picture of a job posting at the federal Bureau of Prisons showing that U.S. citizenship is required as a condition of employment that the “DOJ needs to sue themselves!”
Musk took to X, the social media platform he acquired that was formerly known as Twitter, and posted in response to a picture of a job posting at the federal Bureau of Prisons showing that U.S. citizenship is required as a condition of employment that the “DOJ needs to sue themselves!”
DOJ needs to sue themselves! https://t.co/TuugrdtYut
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2023
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…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2023
And this lawsuit begs the question, why would our American Department of Justice demand the hiring of any foreigners? Shouldn’t a company be allowed to choose qualified Americans alone, as long as all the other fairness-in-hiring rules were followed?
The lawsuit, if true, would put SpaceX in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The DoJ also claims SpaceX wrongly stated in job postings that it can only hire U.S. citizens and green card holders. According to the agency, there aren’t such restrictions in place in any law.
The Justice Department has apparently been investigating SpaceX since 2020 when an interviewee raised the alarm after claiming the private space company didn’t hire him after revealing he wasn’t a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
In 2021, SpaceX was ordered to hand over hiring records as part of the probe. At the time, SpaceX’s lawyers claimed, “SpaceX cannot afford to artificially limit the talent pool from which it hires by discriminating against anyone on the basis of their citizenship”.
The new space race is on. I also must ask why the DOJ is targeting the most successful private space firm our country has over adherence to rules that should never have been established in the first place?
The Biden administration's politically weaponized DOJ is suing SpaceX for hiring American citizens to work on cutting-edge rocket technology instead of prioritizing refugees.
In 2016, @ElonMusk was asked why SpaceX doesn't hire non-U.S. citizens?
"Unfortunately, this is not up… pic.twitter.com/Ikmuenconq
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) August 26, 2023
In conclusion, I assert that the premise of the Salem witch trials makes more sense than those offered recently by the Biden DOJ…on this matter and many others.
In the Biden DOJ's lawsuit against @elonmusk's SpaceX for not hiring non-citizens, they write "SpaceX regularly told job candidates that with few exceptions SpaceX is only able to hire U.S. citizens."
If you go to NASA's official website, it literally says the exact same thing. pic.twitter.com/zdD9GbR9zC
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 25, 2023
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Do we think the DoJ cares about the law, fairness, or the good of our nation?
Not under this administration!
Is there reason to believe they ever have?
DOJ wants Space X to carry dead weight, people who are likely to cause harm, maybe death, their own and even worse others. Everyone should stop putting up with shit from people who are simply not smart enough.
“In the Biden DOJ’s lawsuit against @elonmusk’s SpaceX for not hiring non-citizens, they write “SpaceX regularly told job candidates that with few exceptions SpaceX is only able to hire U.S. citizens.”
If you go to NASA’s official website, it literally says the exact same thing. pic.twitter.com/zdD9GbR9zC
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 25, 2023″
Classic example of do as we say, not as we do.
This rule that they are persecuting Musk over is yet another Fed policy that needs to be sh*tcanned pronto! Yes we should be prioritizing our own citizens when it comes to high level jobs at U.S. companies!
The most important reason to hire Americans is that such job experience builds American intellectual capital in those employees.
You know that your country has become a banana republic when the outcome of legal action brought against you by the government entirely depends upon which President appointed your particular judge.
There are no Obama judges
Roberts scathing reply to President Trump!
I think Musk isn’t paying enough to the “ right” people
But that would be putting American’s first
Not allowed with this admin.
I wonder if theyve taken agents off the “Hunter investigation” to go after Musk. You know, priorities and all.
The DOJ should sue themselves. I love it! Hypocrisy abounds at the fed, but the real reason is Biden is pissed X isn’t censoring conservative comments or criticism of the administration. The DOJ can go pound sand.
DOJ wants Space X to carry dead weight, people who are likely to cause harm, maybe death, their own and even worse others. Everyone should stop putting up with shit from people who are simply not smart enough.
I wouldn’t say Biden is pissed.
The Deep State, OTOH….
This is really dumb. The last company I worked for before retiring was required, by law and contract, to ensure that only U.S. citizens were allowed to work on government contracts or access government data.
SpaceX does work for the U.S. Government, including orbiting national security payloads. It is not unreasonable to insist that prospective employees be eligible for a security clearance. Not that they necessarily have one but are at least eligible.
Does anyone believe that the illegals allowed in with no vetting at all is eligible for a U.S. security clearance? I don’t care if they’ve been granted asylum or not, they are not U.S. Persons, they are not eligible for security clearances, and damn sure should not be getting hiring preference over U.S. citizens.
Apparently, the labor laws requires that you export rocket technology to a foreign national in violation of ITAR.
I’m sure Musk could hire someone to be in charge of invoicing for the company cafeteria, and let him work remotely from a cell in the DC Gulag.
Yet more weaponization of the DoJ.
This is obvious retaliation for letting Donald Trump back on Twitter.
Among other “transgressions.”
I’ve run into this (indirectly) and there’s a distinction between hiring someone who is here lawfully and a foreigner. It is the most confusing thing in the world especially determinations of when you have broken export law. As it was explained to me you must have a license number of the data to use the “US Citizen” requirement. Most think that simply ITAR or PII is the distinction. If you don’t have the license number, it’s actually looser than people would think on citizen status.
It’s quite the “dick move” on the DOJ to run around suing. REALLY- did you bother to reach out and clarify the damn law first? Or did you make a law that is so confusing to anyone so you could run around suing anyone who failed to hire 20 attorneys to read it?
This isn’t the first company the DOJ has gone after on this “gotcha” BTW. I know this from dealing with someone not understanding the distinction and getting corrected by someone who was aware of what assholes the DOJ are on this topic.
It is important to note that these are not laws, but regulations made up by the federal agencies. The DOJ could not wield so much power were it not allowed to usurp the law-making ability granted solely to Congress.
This is how we came to be ruled by bureaucrats.
ITAR violations will get you in hot water way faster than not hiring a non-citizen/green card holder that cannot get a background check or security clearance. Just to be able to use the computer systems requires a background check just for emails. What’s ironic is the DOD/OPM has the same rules for civil service concerning ITAR and tech data releases to non-citizens and non-US based companies ect.
We have a Department of Jackassery
A transparently politically-motivated lawsuit brought by DOJ — what a surprise.
This is overt retaliation against Musk because he’s an iconoclast/gadfly who criticizes Dumb-o-crats, rejects censorship of conservative opinions and generally refuses to march to the vile and totalitarian Dumb-o-crats’ drumbeat.
If only those white brothers, Wilbur and Orville, had joined forces with asylum seekers. We would have faster, more plentiful trains, no aerial warfare, no hurly burly of air travel.
If only they had asked for help from the government instead of employing their own ingenuity, passion and determination, I’m sure we’d all be using affordable supersonic flight by now and visiting a growing Mars base for vacation.
Just look at the struggling health of companies like Uber, who explicitly evade government regulatory “help,” compared to the robust growth and expansion of America’s power generating industry, including both nuclear and coal.
Fine: /s.
If there is no such prohibition, there damn well should be.
The DoJ is doing this because Musk stepped off the Dem plantation and has said and done things that are not approved by the communists that run the government. They don’t care about the space race or that it’d break federal law to hire illegals.
They only care about punishing their enemies.
When you need an I9 to hire someone this is laughable.
Its just a new front opened in the administration’s War on Competence.
Space X has shown that a better job than NASA can be done of getting things into space and of recycling portions of the delivery system . Big Brother does not like his short-comings exhibited to the public. He will strike back.
What a pathetic joke…. as if rocket scientists are swimming the Rio Grande.
It actually highlights what a complete farce our immigration ‘policy’ has become. In the old days we would actually focus on bringing the ‘best and the brightest’ into our country.
Now we let uneducated hordes come in to latch their teeth on the welfare tit, in exchange for a promise to pull the Donk’s lever.
“as if rocket scientists are swimming the Rio Grande.”
No, just plenty of soldiers and IED engineers.
Why is the DOJ is targeting the most successful private space firm our country?
Biden DOJ: Because fuck Elon Musk!
Maybe Elon needs to Shrug.
I bet if he shrugged in Ukraine, donks would sit up and take notice.
Just another alphabet agency to abolish someday.
The DOJ’s case against Musk has all the legal merits of all four cases against Trump.
In other words, none at all.
Do we not still have a law on the books (I almost said “in effect”, but we know that’s malarkey) that requires all employers not employ people in the country illegally?
And are not all asylum seekers in the country illegally, unless they entered at a point of entry after satisfying other legal requirements?
Seems to me this would be a great spot for McCarthy to make some “conservative” political capital. Put up for vote a law that clarifies that it is always illegal to hire someone not adjudicated* to be a legal entrant to the country. Sure, it will die (barely) in the Senate. But you’ll put a lot of people in the position of wondering if their constituents will notice.
(* “not adjudicated” so that you can’t have anyone claiming “Well, they didn’t give me my day in court yet, so I’m not illegal, yet!” Nope, if you haven’t had your day in court, then you’re not here legally, yet.)
Musk leans right politically, meaning that he must be attacked by the DOJ on a regular basis. Watch as IRS agents come knocking in a month or two. Anything to deflect from the fact that Biden is corrupt to the core, and is compromised by our enemies.
I’m guessing what’s going on here is this: There a group of D.C
lawyers whose job it is to enforce ITAR, and they hate Elon Musk. There’s a separate group of D.C. lawyers whose job it is to enforce Civil Rights law, and they hate Elon Musk. So as each stretches the meaning of statutes and rules in order to *get* Elon Musk, it turns out there is no safe and legal course of action remaining for anyone caught in between – and they likely don’t see a problem with that.
Because sub-Sarahan Africans are totally capable of contributing to the pushing of rockets or satellites into space.