Friday, February 28, 2025

Justice Department Sues Facebook for Favoring Migrants

Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].

The U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit against Facebook, alleging that the technology firm favored migrant or foreign workers on H-1B visas and others on temporary visas over U.S. citizen employees.

In a statement, the Justice Department said Facebook refused to recruit qualified U.S. workers for more than 2,600 jobs, reserving them for temporary visa holders it wanted to sponsor for permanent work authorization.

The positions, which were allegedly discriminated against by Facebook, offered an average salary of approximately $156,000 and, according to the lawsuit, the company did not advertise these positions on its career website as it normally does.

Assistant Attorney General Eric S. Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division said the department alleges that Facebook "committed widespread and intentional violations of the law by reserving positions for temporary visa holders rather than considering interested and qualified U.S. workers. 

"This lawsuit follows an almost two-year investigation... Our message is clear: if companies deny employment opportunities by illegally preferring temporary visa holders, the Justice Department will hold them accountable," the official added.

The complaint states that, from January 1, 2018 to September 18, 2019, Facebook employed tactics that discriminated against U.S. workers and preferred holders of temporary work visas in connection with the labor certification process (PERM).

It also alleges that Facebook attempted to channel jobs to temporary visa holders, at the expense of U.S. workers, by not advertising those vacancies on its career website and refusing to consider U.S. workers who applied for those positions. 

In its investigation, the department determined that Facebook's "ineffective" recruitment methods deterred U.S. workers from applying for their PERM jobs.

Thus, the department concluded that, during the referred period, Facebook received between zero and one U.S. applicant for 99.7 percent of its PERM positions, while comparable positions advertised on its career site during a similar period generally attracted 100 or more applicants.

It should be noted that the PERM process is administered by the Department of Labor and allows employers to offer permanent positions to temporary visa holders, making them legal permanent residents who can live and work in the U.S. indefinitely.

However, the PERM process requires that an employer demonstrate that there are no qualified U.S. workers available for the position that the employer plans to offer the temporary visa holder.

Indeed, H-1B visas are often used by the technology sector to bring highly skilled foreign workers to the U.S. However, for some critics of these permits, the laws governing such visas are lax and make it too easy to replace U.S. workers with cheaper foreign labor.

According to a statement picked up by the U.S. media, technology giant spokesman Daniel Robertson, "Facebook has been cooperating with the Justice Department in its review of this matter and while we dispute the allegations in the complaint, we cannot comment further on the pending litigation.

The Facebook lawsuit is the latest example of the Trump administration's crusade against Silicon Valley in its effort to restrict immigration of foreign workers.

This is totally contrary to what companies such as Facebook and Apple have said, as they believe that banning such visas would stifle the ability of American companies to attract the best talent, drive innovation and promote economic prosperity.

In June, Trump issued a presidential proclamation that temporarily blocked foreign workers entering on H-1B visas, ensuring that 525,000 U.S. jobs would be restored.

According to a May Economic Policy Institute report, the top 30 employers of H-1B workers include Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, Alphabet's Google, Apple and Facebook.

Peninsula 360 Press
Peninsula 360 Presshttps://peninsula360press.com
Study of cross-cultural digital communication

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