A technology company will be excluded for two years from a federal employment-based green card program after the Justice Department accused it of discriminating against U.S. workers during recruitment.
The DOJ said Friday that Cloudera Inc. has agreed to a two-year ban on participating in the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program and $2 million in payments under a settlement with it and Labor Department.
The PERM program allows companies to sponsor foreign workers for permanent residency after providing required recruitment opportunities for U.S. workers.
The DOJ said the settlement also resolved an April lawsuit in which the Justice Department accused the California-based data management company of discriminating against U.S. workers while recruiting for seven for PERM-related positions. Federal investigators alleged that Cloudera directed applicants to an email address that could not receive messages from outside the company.
Ensuring Employers 'Treat US Workers Fairly'
Under the agreement, Cloudera will establish a $1.4 million back-pay fund for qualified U.S. workers whom the Justice Department determines were affected and pay $600,000 in civil penalties. Cloudera will be barred from participating in the PERM program for two years, according to the Justice Department.
“There are no exceptions: the Justice Department will hold accountable employers who discriminate against U.S. workers,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a DOJ release. “This substantial settlement, in partnership with DOL, sends a strong signal to employers that the federal government will work together to ensure employers treat U.S. workers fairly.”
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A spokesperson for Cloudera said the company took steps to resolve the issue when it discovered an email used for recruitment was inadvertently restricted to internal employees, according to Bloomberg Law.
“Cloudera does not discriminate against anyone in making hiring decisions, and we remain firmly committed to fair, lawful, and open recruitment practices,” they said.
Newsweek reached out to Cloudera for comment via email on Saturday.
Wider Scrutiny of Employment Visas
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has pushed to tighten oversight of the H-1B visa—which allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers for certain roles—including through raised fees, stricter reviews and new constraints on employers that hire foreign workers.
Earlier this month, the administration blocked several technology companies, among them Adobe and Microsoft, from applying for green cards for their H-1B vias holders. “We want you to continue to grow and to employ a lot of people, but we want you to employ American workers," Vice President J.D. Vance said at the time.
Microsoft said in a statement sent to Newsweek that it believes in the "strength and talent of the American workforce."
"That is why the vast majority of Microsoft employees in the United States are Americans," the statement read.
"Microsoft only files H-1B petitions for those who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category. We pay our employees some of the highest compensation in the tech sector, and our wages are among the highest of all H-1B filings. We pay our H-1B employees the same as any other employees doing comparable work."
The company’s president, Brad Smith, recently pushed back against the administration’s suspensions, saying its reasoning was “off-base.”
Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Edward Pearcey.