Biden Justice Dept investigating SpaceX over hiring of non-citizens
They’re coming for you next: The Biden Justice Dept is now investigating SpaceX for discriminating against non-American citizens in its hiring practices.
The DOJ’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section received a complaint of employment discrimination from a non-U.S. citizen claiming that the company discriminated against him based on his citizenship status.
“The charge alleges that on or about March 10, 2020, during the Charging Party’s interview for the position of Technology Strategy Associate, SpaceX made inquiries about his citizenship status and ultimately failed to hire him for the position because he is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident,” DOJ attorney Lisa Sandoval wrote in a court document filed Thursday. The document was a request for a judge to order SpaceX to comply with an administrative subpoena for documents related to how the company hires.
It also appears that SpaceX refused to comply with a subpoena from this Justice Dept section, claiming that it exceeded that section’s authority. The Biden administration is now asking the court to enforce that subpoena.
This is not just absurd, it smacks of government overreach designed to destroy the company. SpaceX is a rocket company that must follow very strict ITAR rules designed to prevent the release of military technology to foreign powers. By its very nature the company cannot hire foreign nationals for almost any position. If SpaceX were to hire a non-citizen the State Department would have grounds to shut them down.
Now the Biden administration is demanding that SpaceX do exactly that, essentially placing the company between a rock and a hard place.
This action, combined with the refusal yesterday by the FAA to issue a launch permit to SpaceX so it could do a test flight of its Starship prototype #9, gives us another clear picture of what to expect from Democratic Party rule for the next four years. They have always been out to squelch any independent operations in any way they can, and they now have the power to do it.
Musk better get ready to pay that bribe to the Democratic Party. Otherwise they will shut him down.
As for Starship, according to SpaceX’s website they will make their next launch attempt in February 1. This could be because the FAA has finally relented, or the company is scheduling it to apply more pressure to the agency to get that permit approved. We shall have to wait until then to see.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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They’re coming for you next: The Biden Justice Dept is now investigating SpaceX for discriminating against non-American citizens in its hiring practices.
The DOJ’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section received a complaint of employment discrimination from a non-U.S. citizen claiming that the company discriminated against him based on his citizenship status.
“The charge alleges that on or about March 10, 2020, during the Charging Party’s interview for the position of Technology Strategy Associate, SpaceX made inquiries about his citizenship status and ultimately failed to hire him for the position because he is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident,” DOJ attorney Lisa Sandoval wrote in a court document filed Thursday. The document was a request for a judge to order SpaceX to comply with an administrative subpoena for documents related to how the company hires.
It also appears that SpaceX refused to comply with a subpoena from this Justice Dept section, claiming that it exceeded that section’s authority. The Biden administration is now asking the court to enforce that subpoena.
This is not just absurd, it smacks of government overreach designed to destroy the company. SpaceX is a rocket company that must follow very strict ITAR rules designed to prevent the release of military technology to foreign powers. By its very nature the company cannot hire foreign nationals for almost any position. If SpaceX were to hire a non-citizen the State Department would have grounds to shut them down.
Now the Biden administration is demanding that SpaceX do exactly that, essentially placing the company between a rock and a hard place.
This action, combined with the refusal yesterday by the FAA to issue a launch permit to SpaceX so it could do a test flight of its Starship prototype #9, gives us another clear picture of what to expect from Democratic Party rule for the next four years. They have always been out to squelch any independent operations in any way they can, and they now have the power to do it.
Musk better get ready to pay that bribe to the Democratic Party. Otherwise they will shut him down.
As for Starship, according to SpaceX’s website they will make their next launch attempt in February 1. This could be because the FAA has finally relented, or the company is scheduling it to apply more pressure to the agency to get that permit approved. We shall have to wait until then to see.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Musk was asked this question in 2016 and this is his real world explanation: https://youtu.be/CIvtiNpKEY0 1:47
He is not legally allowed to hire non citizens when working in association with the military and rocket technology.
The Biden administration wants to force and allow the Communist Chinese government direct access to SpaceX technology. When is the last time you saw a Chinese first stage land itself? That, given what we all plainly know and understand about what Biden is in fact all about and his associations directly with the Communist Chinese government is exactly what you would expect.
Just like the GameStop trading issue ongoing the system will do what is necessary to preserve itself by changing the rules as needed. The system must survive. S.O.M. all the way, the Golden Rule applies: He who has the gold / power makes the rules.
Everything now is fraudulent in America, from the presidency to the stock market, to the Leftist Social media oligarchs controlling what you are allowed to see say and think. And it is not by coincidence. The Biden installation, (and both Biden and Harris understand that they were and had to be installed and not elected by a formerly Democratic election system), as president and everything else that is on going is in your face abuse of power and the overt selling out of the country.
We have suspected the country has been taken over by the Democrats and the Leftists in opposition to the wishes of the American electorate, now we can all see it by blatant evidence. Right in your face, and you can do little about it.
The Democrats will attempt to install everything and anything that secures their power in perpetuity. If you are a Democrat and just could not personally stand the thought of a Trump presidency, this is the price you have paid whether you realize it or not.
The move to structurally embed the means of Democrat party dominance in America in perpetuity:
“Democrat lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bill dubbed the “Vote at Home Act,” which seeks to “massively expand vote-at-home ballot access,” enacting automatic voter registration and providing voters with pre-paid ballot envelopes.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) introduced the bill (pdf), saying in a press release that the legislation is meant to “fight voter suppression.”
“Our democracy is stronger when every American can vote, without standing in ridiculous lines or having to take time off work or school to exercise their Constitutional rights,” Wyden said in a statement.”
I my estimation there are about 12 0ther moves to be made to ensure this takeover of America. And they have two years to accomplish it all. BUT the margins for such legislation are very thin, threats will have to be made and delivered on in order to keep all of the Democrats in line. Prepare.
You’ve seen Chinse 1st stages land. Usually crashing near a village and still leaking the toxic propellent they still use. It not the landing tech that the Chinese want, that they can just steal, its that SpaceX has been siphoning off launch customers. That just has to stop!
All those space geeks who trashed Trump for four years on Ars Technica, nasawatch, SpaceNews, etc. are about to get exactly what they wanted—and they’re gonna get it good and hard.
Sadly, so are the rest of us.
Per this post and all of the commentary about SpaceX not getting FAA approval, there are things about the space program — the “why” of a space program — that are so fundamental that they are almost totally taken for granted, but they are bedrock considerations in terms of what is now happening in this country.
Most of the people visiting Behind the Black and/or reading the commentary believe at least two things; first, that manned space exploration — however it happens — is vitally important for the future of this nation. Likewise, *the future of the country itself* is important, and how we go about the exploration / utilization of space will have a large bearing on whether or not the United States will succeed or fail as a modern technological society.
Well, boys and girls, many if not most “progressive” Democrats do NOT believe *either* of these things, and, in fact, they desperately
want a United States that DOES NOT HAVE a functional space program because they do not want a “functional” United States. QED,
they do not want for SpaceX — or any such entity — to be successful, and they will do their damnedest to make sure that it isn’t.
Indeed, what Mr. Musk and SpaceX is trying to do is ANATHEMA to every tenet of the radical left, and — as such — they will seek to
“cancel” it just as they seek to cancel any political opposition to their Marxist agenda for this country. An open, entrepreneurial-based
space program is simply not compatible with the kind of neofeudalism (aka, the Great Reset) that they have in mind for us, so SpaceX
cannot be “allowed” to proceed.
Do you “get” this? Do you understand the principles involved, and that “our” current government does not WANT either SpaceX — or the country itself — to succeed? (As part of the “international consensus,” they DO want Communist China to be the undisputed leader in space because *their* program — properly, as they see it — is totally subservient to rigid political control.)
The question is, what, if anything can be done to counter this kind of a leftist agenda, and what can be done to protect SpaceX and the
other private players from this kind of deadly “government oversight”?
And, yes, we ARE in a kind of civil war for the future of this country, and pretending otherwise — well, the folks at the FAA or the Biden Justice Department are just “confused” or “acting like overzealous bureaucrats” — is not going to help matters at all.
Reminds me of Loral’s Bernie Schwartz back in Bill Clinton’s day.
He was the kind of aerospace exec Washington loved.
Mexico has launch sites much closer to the equator. Perhaps a little “High Justice”?
Milt,
You asked: “Do you ‘get’ this? Do you understand the principles involved, and that ‘our’ current government does not WANT either SpaceX — or the country itself — to succeed?”
It may surprise you to learn that many of us on Behind The Black have been discussing this for a decade. Obama was very specific about this as one of his goals for his presidency. We have been aware since the 2012 election that the federal government has taken the Democratic Party’s side in political activities. We now know that many state and local governments have also taken the same side. This is the side of reduced liberty and freedom, and of larger, overbearing, corrupt government, sometimes with antiAmerican ties with foreign countries. We know that Robert understands this, because he writes such things as:
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/faa-bureaucrats-block-spacex-starship-test-flight/
The corrupted bureaucrats are the ones employed to execute these corrupt and conflicting policies. Conflicting policies make for guilt no matter what business decision is made. How to get absolution from this guilt? Pay bribes — er — fines to the various bureaucracies, their favorite “charities,” or both. The newly gained freedom lasts until the corrupted bureaucracies become greedy again.
Welcome to Obama’s fundamentally transformed America, land of the formerly free.
Reminds me of Loral’s Bernie Schwartz back in Bill Clinton’s day.
And James and Mochtar Riady of the Lippo Group. And Charlie Trie and Johnny Chung. And Al Gore and the Buddhist Temple. I believe these people conspired for many evils. Most, probably, for good old fashion power and money. But Bill and Bernie sneaked rocket science to China, and that hurt national security.
I thought Clinton should have been impeached for these dealings, if guilty, but before they could gather good evidence, Monica Lewinsky raised her head from beneath the Resolute Desk and he gets impeached for small beans. I was livid.
Perhaps a “minor” impeachment to cover treason. I’d make that trade.
“Our democracy is stronger when every American can vote, without standing in ridiculous lines or having to take time off work or school to exercise their Constitutional rights,” Wyden said in a statement.”
Mr. Wyden, we are not voting for our favorite candidate on Dancing With The Stars. Our vote in a representative republic affects our lives far more significantly than that, and – even if it is “inconvenient” to us – deserves to be cast and counted in a manner that is at least as secure as the nickel slots at a Nevada casino.
Process matters.
Mexico has launch sites much closer to the equator. Perhaps a little “High Justice”?
1) No they don’t. 2) And if they did, so? SpaceX is an American company.