US judge pauses SpaceX’s challenge to case over anti-immigrant bias

By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday granted the U.S. Department of Justice’s request to pause a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s SpaceX claiming the agency lacks the power to pursue claims that the space technology company refused to hire certain immigrants.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Ignacio Torteya in Brownsville, Texas, made the decision following the agency’s Jan. 19 request to stay the lawsuit for 45 days, in which it signaled that it could drop or settle the case.

Republican President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, ushering in a new administration. Musk, a top adviser to Trump, is leading a commission tasked with identifying waste and inefficiency in the federal government.

SpaceX and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

DOJ claims that from at least 2018 to 2022, SpaceX routinely discouraged asylum recipients and refugees from applying for jobs and refused to consider or hire them.

The company has denied wrongdoing, saying federal export control laws require it to employ only U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.

In 2023, a different judge had blocked DOJ from pursuing the case, which would be heard in-house by an administrative judge, pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

SpaceX sued to block the case, claiming that DOJ administrative judges are improperly appointed by the U.S. attorney general because they are granted powers that should be reserved only for officials appointed by the president.

Trump and Musk have both been critical of the powers of federal agencies, including those like DOJ with in-house enforcement proceedings.

Musk has said that the panel he is leading, the Department of Government Efficiency, would recommend massive spending cuts and layoffs of federal workers and identify thousands of government regulations that are unnecessary or legally invalid.

SpaceX is also challenging the structure of the National Labor Relations Board in a pair of lawsuits seeking to block the agency from hearing cases accusing the company of illegal labor practices.