Trump DOJ takes final crack at Facebook, alleging it hired foreign workers over U.S. citizens

The Trump administration is taking one final shot at two of its pet issues: big tech and immigration.

The Justice Department announced Thursday that it would sue Facebook over its hiring practices, alleging it offered spots to foreign workers without properly considering Americans. The suit is reflective of the Trump administration's efforts to reduce foreign hiring over the past four years, building contention with tech companies along the way.

The DOJ conducted a two-year investigation into Facebook's hiring and recruiting practices, finding that Facebook was "setting aside positions for temporary visa holders instead of considering interested and qualified U.S. workers," Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division said in a statement. U.S. law mandates American companies only sponsor foreign workers if other suitable American candidates can't fill a job. More than 2,600 Facebook jobs, with salaries of around $156,000, could've gone to Americans instead of green card holders, the DOJ alleges. The lawsuit is clearly a message to other big tech companies, with Dreiband telling "all employers" that "you cannot illegally prefer to recruit, consider, or hire temporary visa holders over U.S. workers."

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The Trump administration has launched numerous attacks on immigration over the past four years, instituting policies that make it harder to get visas to work in or visit the U.S. and cutting down on immigration altogether. That goal has only expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic as the administration used the resulting economic crisis as reasoning to curb the hiring of foreign workers. Big tech companies have often opposed Trump's foreign hiring crackdowns.

A Facebook spokesperson told The Washington Post that the company disputes the allegations.