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Justice Department Sues SpaceX for Discriminating Against Asylees and Refugees in Hiring (www.justice.gov)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
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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).

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[+] -10 points 3 years ago (3 children)

uuuuuhhhh, TIL Must be a new thing cause i do remember is 100% was a thing to protect aerospace secrets.

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  • [–] 26 points 3 years ago

    It's easy to misinterpret the law because it states you can only hire U.S. Persons without requiring approval. And naturally people would assume U.S. Persons means citizens. But the term also includes permanent residents, asylees, and refugees.

    So SpaceX can't hire immigrants on a temporary visa without a lot of effort. But refugees and asylees are explicitly allowed to work at such companies.

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  • [–] 15 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    It's not new. Refugees and people with asylum are considered US persons, it's literally written into the law (ITAR) protecting aerospace secrets.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Wow so every doco i have read/watched on the space race has interpreted the law incorrectly.

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  • [–] 17 points 3 years ago*

    It's not an interpretation. It's defined in relatively simple to understand English.

    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).

    Relevant portion of 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3):

    [A protected person] 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;

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