Justice department drops discrimination case against Elon Musk’s SpaceX

The US Department of Justice on Thursday said it would drop a case accusing Elon Musk’s space technology company SpaceX of refusing to hire certain immigrants.

The justice department last month signaled it could back away from the case, brought during Joe Biden’s term. Musk, a top adviser and donor to Donald Trump, is leading a commission tasked with identifying waste in the federal government, dubbed the “department of government efficiency”, or Doge.

In a Thursday court filing in Brownsville, Texas, government lawyers asked a judge to end a pause in proceedings so they could file a notice of dismissal of the case. The justice department said it would dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning it could not be brought again. Texas-based SpaceX and the justice department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The justice department in August 2023 filed an administrative complaint alleging SpaceX from 2018 to 2022 routinely discouraged asylum recipients and refugees from applying for jobs and refused to consider them.

At the time, the department said SpaceX wrote in job postings and public statements that it could only hire US citizens and lawful permanent residents because of US export control laws. The department said export control laws did not impose such restrictions.

SpaceX has denied wrongdoing. The company said in a 16 November 2023 court filing that export laws impose “strict limitations on who it can employ”.

“SpaceX follows strict policies and procedures to both ensure compliance with all export control laws and regulations and also prevent any unlawful discrimination,” the company said.

SpaceX sued to block the administrative complaint, which would be heard in-house by an administrative judge. The company said DoJ administrative judges are improperly appointed by the US attorney general because they are granted powers that should be reserved only for officials appointed by the president.

A judge had temporarily blocked the DoJ from pursuing the case while it weighed arguments from both sides.

Trump and Musk have both been critical of the powers of federal agencies, including those such as the DoJ with in-house enforcement proceedings. On his first day in office, Trump declared illegal immigration a national emergency. He has stepped up deportations and issued a broad ban on asylum claims.