[National News] SpaceX sued by DOJ for hiring practices

[HDGristle]

SpaceX is being sued by the DOJ for hiring practices involving how it handles asleep and refugees.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit today against Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) for discriminating against asylees 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 (INA).

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.” Export control laws impose no such hiring restrictions. Moreover, asylees’ and refugees’ permission to live and work in the United States does not expire, and they stand on equal footing with U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents under export control laws. Under these laws, companies like SpaceX can hire asylees and refugees for the same positions they would hire U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. And once hired, asylees and refugees can access export-controlled information and materials without additional government approval, just like U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justi...efugees-hiring

Now, since at least 2016, Musk has publicly fumbled the ball on how he's portrayed SpaceX's hiring practices and how it can/can't use foreign talent.

Here's an example of a prior article on the matter and how ITAR has been explained

https://www.popularmechanics.com/spa...lon-musk-itar/


Here's a video fron 2016 with Musk's explanation when questioned about using international talent.

https://youtu.be/ErLTfIuioAE?si=m8v-U6yMC0CS7uxu

But this argument, while right about the possibiliy of waivers, is a bit shallow since ITAR doesn’t just limit access to U.S. citizens or green card holders. And therein is the crux of the issue. They can hire U.S. persons.

Below is an example of how that's defined in NASA hiring guidelines.

U.S. Person - a natural person who is a lawful permanent resident as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(20) or who is a protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

And in traditional ITAR contexts "U.S. person" means U.S. citizen, the often overlooked and misunderstood U.S. national, permanent residents, asylees and reugees.

For individuals, including the categories in8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), U.S. persons include:
[LIST]
(3)“Protected individual” definedAs used in paragraph (1), the term “protected individual” means an individual who—

(A)

is a citizen or national of the United States, or

(B)

is an alien who is lawfully admitted for permanent residence, is granted the status of an alien lawfully admitted for temporary residence under section 1160(a) or 1255a(a)(1) of this title, is admitted as a refugee under section 1157 of this title, or is granted asylum under section 1158 of this title; but does not include (i) an alien who fails to apply for naturalization within six months of the date the alien first becomes eligible (by virtue of period of lawful permanent residence) to apply for naturalization or, if later, within six months after November 6, 1986, and (ii) an alien who has applied on a timely basis, but has not been naturalized as a citizen within 2 years after the date of the application, unless the alien can establish that the alien is actively pursuing naturalization, except that time consumed in the Service’s processing the application shall not be counted toward the 2-year period.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-28/chapter-I/part-44