The Trump administration claims
The company “refused to recruit, consider, or hire qualified and available U.S. workers for over 2,600 positions” and instead reserved the jobs -- with an average salary of $156,000 -- to non-citizens that it sponsored for permanent work authorizations with green cards, according a statement issued Thursday by the civil rights division of the Justice Department.
The complaint reflects the pressure President
The administration is also
Facebook said it has been cooperating with the Justice Department.
“While we dispute the allegations in the complaint, we cannot comment further on pending litigation,” the company said in a statement.
Hira noted a statistic in the government’s complaint that the Facebook positions at issue typically drew zero or one U.S. applicants, while comparable jobs advertised on its careers website got 100 or more applications.
“U.S. workers want these jobs,” he said. “The fact there’s only one or zero applications would be pretty shocking.”
Instead of suing Facebook in federal court, the Justice Department lodged a complaint with its own Executive Office of Immigration Review, where it will be reviewed by an administrative law judge. The director of the office is appointed by the U.S. attorney general.
The case is part of a 2017 initiative by the department targeting companies that discriminate against U.S. workers, according to the department’s statement. The department has reached settlements totaling more than $1.2 million with about 10 employers, including a Florida strawberry farm, a Texas bus company, a California IT staffing firm and a Colorado agricultural products supplier.
Facebook, one of dozens of tech companies that lined up in court against Trump’s visa restrictions, stands out as much bigger than the typical targets of enforcement actions under the Justice Department’s Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative.
“Facebook engaged in intentional and widespread violations of the law, by setting aside positions for temporary visa holders instead of considering interested and qualified U.S. workers,” Assistant Attorney General
The Justice Department seeks an order compelling Facebook to change its practices as well as civil penalties plus back pay, including interest, for workers who were discriminated against, according to the complaint.
(Updates with professor’s comment in seventh paragraph.)
--With assistance from
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