DOJ sues Facebook, alleges discrimination
The Justice Department sued Facebook on Thursday, accusing it of being unAmerican by favoring foreign workers with visas over those from the United States, in a newpush against tech companies in the waning days of the Trump administration.
In the complaint, the department’s civil rights division said Facebook “refused to recruit, consider or hire qualified and available U.S. workers” for more than 2,600 positions, with an average salary of $156,000. Those jobs instead went to immigrant visa holders, according to the complaint.
The action followed a two-year investigation into whether Facebook intentionally favored so-called H1-B visa and other temporary immigrant workers over U.S. workers, the Justice Department said.
Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesperson, said, “Facebook has been cooperating with the DOJ in its review of this issue, and while we dispute the allegations in the complaint, we cannot comment further on pending litigation.”
Bipartisan anger in Washington has mounted in recent years against Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple — some of the world’s most valuable companies — for data privacy abuses, the spread of disinformation and other toxic content on their platforms, and complaints of anti-competitive practices that have harmed consumers and small businesses.
It is the first time the administration has brought legal action claiming immigrant employment bias.
Skilled-worker visas in the technology industry have been a focus of debate for a decade. Facebook, Google, Microsoft, IBM and other companies have lobbied for years to expand H1-B visas, arguing the importance of getting the best engineers from overseas, particularly from China and
India. Critics have called the visa program a crutch for tech companies to overlook U.S.-born talent and lure foreign workers at lower wages.
According to its complaint, the Justice Department found that between Jan. 1 and Sept. 18 last year, Facebook routinely put H1-B and other immigrant temporary workers on a track for permanent employment thatwas not available to U.S. citizens. Facebook also used less effective methods to advertise jobs to U.S. workers, the department said.
The hiring spotlighted by the complaint made up just 0.5 percent of Facebook’s 50,000 employees.