SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket-maker with ties to his Starlink satellite broadband service, is the target of a US Department of Justice (DoJ) lawsuit alleging that the company discriminated against asylees and refugees throughout its hiring process.

The DoJ claims that SpaceX's hiring process, including during recruiting, screen and selection, is in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a law amended by Congress in 1986 that prohibits employment hiring discrimination due to citizenship status or national origin.

"Because of their citizenship status, asylees and refugees had virtually no chance of being fairly considered for or hired for a job at SpaceX," the DoJ held in a complaint (PDF) filed Wednesday (August 23). "SpaceX's discriminatory hiring practices were routine, widespread, and longstanding, and harmed asylees and refugees."

Citing SpaceX data provided to the US government, the company hired only one person – among more than 10,000 hires from September 2018 to May 2022 – who identified as an asylee in the job application. SpaceX, the suit points out, recruits and hires for a wide range of positions, including welders, cooks, crane operators, baristas and dishwashers, marketing execs and high-tech posts such as software and rocket engineers.

The DoJ cited several online postings and statements by Musk, SpaceX's CEO, and other company officials and recruiters that wrongly discouraged asylees and refugees – migrants to the US who have fled their home countries due to well-founded fears of persecution – from applying to the company, and wrongly stated that SpaceX can only hire US citizens and lawful permanent residents. Specifically, the DoJ found that SpaceX officials had publicly stated they can only hire US citizens and lawful permanent residents due to export control laws and regulations such as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

The DoJ's examples included a YouTube video that appears to have been taken down and this June 2020 posting on X (formerly Twitter) by Musk:

Investigation opened in May 2020

The DoJ said the IER (Immigrant and Employee Rights) department opened an independent investigation into SpaceX on potential discrimination practices in May 2020, and noted that SpaceX stonewalled IER's requests. IER notified SpaceX in November 2022 that it found reasonable cause to believe the company had engaged in a pattern or practice of unfair immigration-related employment practices.

According to CNBC, the IER opened its investigation after a person named Fabian Hutter complained that SpaceX discriminated against him and was asked about his citizenship during a job interview for a technical strategy associate position. Citing court documents, CNBC noted that Hutter, a person holding dual citizenship from Austria and Canada, is not a US citizen, but is a "lawful permanent [US] resident."

The DoJ is asking the court to order SpaceX to cease and desist from its alleged illegal hiring practices, to "provide fair consideration to each applicant who identified as an asylee or a refugee but was improperly screened out or rejected," and to hire applicants who were victims of the discriminatory practices alleged in the complaint and qualified for employment.

The DoJ also wants SpaceX to dole out back pay, including interest, available to those who were allegedly discriminated against and lost wages resulting from SpaceX's alleged discriminatory practices.

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading