SpaceX, a private American space company famous for developing recyclable Falcon series launch vehicles, with Musk as CEO, has been complained of discriminating against foreigners in recruitment, triggering an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to CNBC, on Thursday local time, according to court documents submitted by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether SpaceX discriminates against non-U.S. citizens in recruitment, and accuses the company of obstructing the subpoenas made by the Department of Justice for obtaining information.
The Immigration and Employee Rights Section of the U.S. Department of Justice received an employment discrimination complaint from a non-U.S. citizen in May, claiming that SpaceX discriminated against him on the basis of his non-U.S. citizen status.
In a complaint filed Thursday, Justice Attorney Lisa Sandoval wrote, “The alleges that SpaceX asked about his citizenship around March 10, 2020, during an interview with the prosecution for the position of Technical Strategy Assistant, and ultimately because he was not a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident. And he was not hired for the position.
The Immigration and Employee Rights Section said that SpaceX had been notified of the matter by e-mail on June 8 and launched an investigation to ask SpaceX to provide information and documents about its employment and employment eligibility verification process.
SpaceX responded in August by sending an electronic version of the I-9 (Certification of Employment Eligibility) form to the Department of Justice, which contains information about employees dating back to June 2019.
But SpaceX rejected the Department of Justice’s request to “show any supporting documents of the I-9 form, such as a copy of an employee’s passport, driver’s license or social security card”.
The Immigration and Employee Rights Section subsequently obtained a subpoena on October 7 to ask SpaceX to produce the relevant documents, but the company still refused.
In order to reject the subpoena, SpaceX filed a petition with the Administrative Court of the Department of Justice, believing that the subpoena was beyond the authority of the Immigration and Employee Rights Section, but the petition was rejected and SpaceX was ordered to comply with the subpoena requirements.
The Immigration and Employee Rights Section said SpaceX acknowledged the legality of the order on December 11, but told the Immigration and Employee Rights Section that “it does not intend to provide any other information against administrative subpoenas.”
The Immigration and Employee Rights Section believes that the documents requested in the subpoena are relevant to investigating the complaints received by the department, because they will show the extent to which SpaceX employs non-U.S. citizens, and although SpaceX claims that the company has to manually retrieve each document, it is not a troublesome request. .
It is reported that the U.S. Department of Justice is asking the court to issue an order requiring SpaceX to comply with the requirements in the subpoena within two weeks and provide relevant information to the Immigration and Employee Rights Section.
