Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it filed a lawsuit against Facebook, which alleges that the technology firm favored migrant or foreign workers with H-1B visas and others with temporary visas, over employees with U.S. citizenship.
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 the subject of alleged discrimination by Facebook, offered an average salary of approximately $156,000 and, according to the lawsuit, the company did not advertise those openings on its careers website as it normally does.
Assistant Attorney General Eric S. Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division said the department alleges that Facebook "engaged in willful and pervasive violations of the law by reserving positions for temporary visa holders instead of considering interested and qualified U.S. workers.
This lawsuit follows a nearly two-year investigation," he said. 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 temporary visa holders for jobs in connection with the labor certification process (PERM).
It also alleges that Facebook attempted to funnel jobs to temporary visa holders, at the expense of U.S. workers, by failing to advertise those openings on its careers website and refusing to consider U.S. workers who applied for those positions.
In its investigation, the department found that Facebook's "ineffective" recruiting methods deterred U.S. workers from applying for its PERM positions.
Thus, the department concluded that, during the reporting period, Facebook received between zero and one U.S. applicant for 99.7 percent of its PERM positions, while comparable positions advertised on its careers 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 lawful 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.
H-1B visas are often used by the technology sector to bring highly skilled foreign workers to the U.S., but some critics of these permits point out that 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 reported by U.S. media, the spokesman for the technology giant, Daniel Robertson, "Facebook has been cooperating with the Department of Justice 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 as it seeks to restrict immigration of foreign workers.
This is completely contrary to what companies like Facebook and Apple have said, as they believe that banning such visas would stifle the ability of U.S. companies to attract the best talent, drive innovation and promote economic prosperity.
In June, Trump issued a presidential proclamation temporarily blocking foreign workers entering on H-1B visas, which he claimed would bring back 525,000 American jobs.
According to a May report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the top 30 employers of H-1B visa workers include firms such as Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, Alphabet's Google, Apple and Facebook.
