The US Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against tech company Cloudera, accusing it of unfairly keeping American workers from applying for well-paying technology jobs. According to officials, Cloudera allegedly preferred hiring workers who held temporary visas instead of considering qualified US applicants.
DOJ sues tech firm over alleged bias against American workers
The case was announced by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division on Tuesday. It was filed against Cloudera Inc., a technology company based in Santa Clara, California.
US Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon posted, “We just sued Cloudera for discriminating against US workers in favour of foreign visa holders for high-paying tech jobs. This is a violation of the Immigration & Nationality Act, and @CivilRights will not hesitate to sue employers for discriminating against US workers. You are on notice!”
According to the DOJ, the company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which bans certain types of job discrimination. The complaint was filed with the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer, which handles cases related to the INA.
Alleged separate hiring system
According to the lawsuit, Cloudera created a separate hiring and recruitment process for certain high-paying tech jobs. Officials claim this system was designed to discourage US workers from applying.
The complaint says the company set aside some jobs for people with temporary work visas. It also alleges that Cloudera created an email address for job applications that could not receive emails from outside the company. Even so, applicants were told to use that address to apply.
US worker says application bounced back
The Justice Department said one American worker tried to apply using the email account mentioned in the job process. However, the applicant received a bounce-back notification, meaning the email did not go through. Officials say this became part of the evidence in the discrimination complaint.
Issue linked to the green card sponsorship process
The lawsuit also described Cloudera’s use of the PERM labour certification process. The PERM program allows companies to sponsor workers for permanent resident status, but only after trying in good faith to recruit US workers first.
The Justice Department claims Cloudera failed to genuinely recruit American workers while sponsoring some current employees through the PERM system.
Dhillon warned employers, saying, “Employers cannot use the PERM sponsorship process as a backdoor for discriminating against US workers,” Dhillon said. “The Division will not hesitate to sue companies who intentionally deter US workers from applying to American jobs.”
The lawsuit is part of the government’s Protecting US Workers Initiative, which was restarted in 2025. The programme focuses on companies accused of favouring temporary visa workers over US citizens or other eligible American workers.
According to the Justice Department, the division has already reached ten settlements in the last year under this initiative.