The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Cloudera, accusing the company of unfairly preventing American workers from accessing high-paying tech jobs. Officials say Cloudera prioritized hiring individuals on temporary visas rather than properly considering qualified U.S. applicants.
The case was announced Tuesday by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and targets Cloudera Inc., a technology company based in Santa Clara, California.
“We just sued Clouder for discriminating against US workers in favor of foreign visa holders for high paying tech jobs. This is a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act and @CivilRights will not hesitate to sue employers for discrimination against US workers! You are on notice!” wrote Harmeet Dhillon in a post on X.
According to the DOJ, the company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a law that prohibits certain forms of employment discrimination. The complaint was submitted to the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer, which oversees cases involving the INA.
Here’s what the complaint states
The suit alleges that Cloudera created a separate recruiting and hiring process for certain high-paying technology roles. Officials say the system was intended to discourage American workers from applying.
It was also claimed that Cloudera did not consider them because of the lucrative tech jobs the company earmarked for people on temporary work visas. Cloudera created an email account that did not allow external emails, but still instructed applicants to use this broken email address to apply for jobs, the official report said.
We just sued Cloudera for discriminating against US workers in favor of foreign visa holders for high-paying tech jobs.
The Division received an allegation of employment discrimination from a US worker who attempted to file a claim using an email account set up by Clouder, but received a bounce back notice. When Cloudera sponsored current employees under the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program, it intentionally failed to recruit American workers in good faith, it added.
Dhillon warned employers, saying, “Employers cannot use the PERM sponsorship process as a backdoor to discriminate against American workers,” Dhillon said. “The Division will not hesitate to sue companies that intentionally discourage American workers from applying for American jobs.”
