ALBAWABA – United States (US) billionaire Elon Musk claimed on Sunday that the US Justice Department has been weaponized against SpaceX for ‘political purposes, according to Russia Today.
In a response to comments on an initial post on X, formerly Twitter, Musk said “This is yet another case of weaponization of the DOJ for political purposes.”
Last Thursday, the US Justice Department (DOJ) announced filing a lawsuit against Musk’s SpaceX for allegedly discriminating against refugees in its hiring practices, as reported by CNN reported.
The view of the SpaceX building next to a rocket launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA on February 17, 2019 – Shutterstock
The suit claims 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),” according to an official statement on August 24.
Out of about 10,000 hires between 2018 and 2022, only one person was an asylee and none were refugees, the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department is seeking to have SpaceX pay civil penalties determined by a judge. Additionally, the department aims to force SpaceX to hire qualified applicants who were rejected because of their citizenship status and give back pay to those who were discriminated against, NPR reported.
Musk claimed US Justice Department has been weaponized against SpaceX
"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," Musk said in the post.
SpaceX builds and launches rockets. This limits the company’s capacity to export certain technologies and software under export control laws, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).
However, the lawsuit also alleges that in postings SpaceX put on job hunting sites and online forums, SpaceX employees specified available positions were only open to U.S. citizens.
On applications, potential employees had to check a box indicating their citizenship status, which was then input into a database that managers and recruiters marked with rejection codes. Such codes were indicated in such criteria as "not authorized to work/ITAR ineligible," "does not meet basic qualifications" and "not U.S. citizen/green card."
“This is not out of some desire of SpaceX to just hire people with green cards — it’s because we’re not allowed to do anything else,” Musk added.
Elon Musk businessman silhouette on Tesla presentation, Logo of company on red background In New York, USA on October 2022 – Shutterstock
“I think this is not a wise policy for the US because there are so many talented people all around the world that we would love to have work at our company. But unless (they) can somehow get a green card, we’re legally prevented from hiring anyone.”
Musk added that the export laws do not apply at Tesla, adding that about 25 percent to 30 percent of its engineering staff was from outside the country.
