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Justice Department Sues SpaceX for Discriminating Against Asylees and Refugees in Hiring
(www.justice.gov)
Asylees was not a word I was familiar with until today
this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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It's a busy day for xenophobic billionaires!
Hang on, ain't it a federal law that if you are employed govt aerospace program (which spacex is part of cause its NASA funded contractor) that only American born people can work for them ? Came up in the past and they responded quoting that the Govt wont let them.
From the link:
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.
So SpaceX blatantly lied hoping no-one else would notice.
It's most likely incompetence...
Lied or didn’t bother to fully read the law.
a·sy·lee
/əˌsīˈlē/
noun
plural noun: asylees
a person who is seeking or has been granted political asylum.
I did some reading up on this as it’s fairly interesting and I haven’t heard about this before. I found this article and it sounds like it’s less than $200k fine and two years monitoring. If I had to guess they might have used that as insurance against leaks of their innovative technology, drone ships and return to pad rockets, satellite technology etc. At least that’s what I hope as I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Also potential sabotage. They also have government contracts with military I’m sure. Maybe it’s easier to risk a lawsuit for a few years of mitigating those risks. Just something to think about.
My guess is this is an example of Hanlon's Razor. A disconnect between their lawyers and their HR staff or hiring managers as to their specific obligations under ITAR would easily explain all of this.
I doubt there was even a specific refugee or asylee actually involved: a poorly-worded job posting would justify this complaint.
If it was most other business owners, I'd probably be a lot more likely to agree with your take regarding potentially doing it for the right reasons (protecting against espionage, sabotage, etc.). Then there is the fact that these are asylees/refugees, which I'd assume wouldn't be hired in a position where espionage, sabotage, etc., are a possibility. Probably more like menial type jobs, away from "innovative technology" and "potential sabotage" positions.
And then there is the following claims from the JD link:
"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" and;
"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."
I'm not an attorney, but it seems like all they had to do is not discourage them, at the least, and at the most, just interview but not hire them. Oh, and keep their mouth shut about things they aren't knowledgeable about the law.