SpaceX—SpaceX refused to hire asylees and refugees from 2018-2022, DOJ alleged discrimination
The DOJ sued SpaceX in August 2023 alleging the company discriminated against asylees and refugees in hiring from 2018-2022. Out of approximately 10,000 hires, only one person was an asylee and none were refugees. SpaceX wrongly claimed export control laws prohibited such hiring. Qualified applicants were rejected including a Georgia Tech graduate with 9 years of engineering experience. The case was dismissed in February 2025 after the Trump administration DOJ moved to drop it.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Immigration Openness | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.885 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
DOJ sued SpaceX for discriminating against asylees and refugees in hiring
The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against SpaceX in August 2023 alleging the company discriminated against asylees and refugees from 2018-2022. SpaceX wrongly claimed export control laws prohibited hiring these groups. Out of approximately 10,000 hires, only one was an asylee and none were refugees.