On Thursday, the Department of Justice announced a lawsuit against Facebook alleging that the company used unfair hiring practices that favored temporary visa holders over qualified U.S. workers. The lawsuit comes as part of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division’s Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative, an initiative that was born in 2017 with the aim of investigating companies that favor foreign workers over qualified U.S. workers.

The Department of Justice has been investigating Facebook for its hiring practices for the past two years. Among the several allegations in the lawsuit, the Department of Justice says the company intentionally reserved over 2,600 jobs for foreign workers who held H-1B visas instead of advertising them to qualified U.S. candidates. The jobs that were given to the Visa holders averaged an annual salary of $156,000.

Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband explains in the lawsuit that "Facebook engaged in intentional and widespread violations of the law, by setting aside positions for temporary visa holders instead of considering interested and qualified U.S. workers.”

The lawsuit also gives examples of jobs being created for specific H-1B visa holders so that the job could be given to them while being “advertised” under the guise that the job was available to anyone who applied. Unlike other jobs on the company website that normally can be applied for online, specific jobs (those reserved for visa holders, allegedly) could only be applied to via mail.

Facebook is also facing allegations that the company failed to properly advertise open positions to U.S. workers on its career website and that any U.S. workers who did apply were never considered for those roles.

The Justice Department released a statement explaining, “Our message to workers is clear: if companies deny employment opportunities by illegally preferring temporary visa holders, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable. Our message to all employers — including those in the technology sector — is clear: you cannot illegally prefer to recruit, consider, or hire temporary visa holders over U.S. workers.”

As part of the lawsuit, the Department of Justice is seeking civil penalties and back pay for domestic workers who were denied the opportunity to work with Facebook. The Department also wants to make sure that these illegal practices do not happen again.

Through a statement given to NPR, a Facebook spokesperson responded to the lawsuit by stating, "Facebook has been cooperating with the in its review of this issue and while we dispute the allegations in the complaint, we cannot comment further on pending litigation."

Hiring Visa Holders Is Not a New Practice in the Tech Industry

The allegations that Facebook is being faced with are not new, especially in the technology sector. Many tech companies throughout Silicon Valley have been known for hiring foreign workers for a variety of positions, especially highly skilled ones.

The immigrant contribution has been so vital to the tech industry that many tech giants are known for being outspoken supporters of immigration reform. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and the VP of Twitter Jessica Herrera-Flanigan have voiced their opposition to the Trump administration's many anti-immigration policies.

In 2019 several tech giants including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, Intel, and Facebook, have all filed over 1,500 labor condition applications for H-1B visas.

While many of these tech giants and other entities support the practice of hiring H-1B visa holders, there is a constant disagreement among others, including the Republican party, that this practice is actually a hindrance to the visa holders who come here for work.

One popular argument has been that when your employment status is directly connected to your immigration status in the United States, there is room for abuse of the system to take place.

Foreign workers who are tethered to their place of employment because of their immigration status will often be less vocal about any dissatisfaction they may have with the company, work conditions, or job duties. Additionally, foreign workers may feel the need to work harder and for longer hours than their counterparts to meet their employer's demands so that they do not lose their jobs and risk deportation.

New Administration May Change Course of the Lawsuit

As the Biden administration is set to take control of the White House in January, there is some speculation that the lawsuit against Facebook may change, especially considering the potential for many of Trump’s anti-immigration policies to be reversed.