DOJ Sues Cloudera for Alleged Discrimination Against US Workers in Tech Hiring

The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against California-based technology company Cloudera, alleging violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act by intentionally discriminating against US workers in favor of hiring workers with temporary visas.

The complaint was filed with the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer, which has jurisdiction over cases arising under the INA.

"Employers cannot use the PERM sponsorship process as a backdoor for discriminating against U.S. workers," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "The Division will not hesitate to sue companies who intentionally deter U.S. workers from applying to American jobs."

The complaint alleges Cloudera intentionally created a separate recruitment and hiring process to deter US workers from applying, and also did not consider them, for lucrative technology jobs that the company earmarked for people with temporary employment visas.

Cloudera created an email account that did not allow external emails, but still instructed applicants to use that unworkable email address to apply for jobs.

The Division received a charge of employment discrimination from one US worker who tried to apply using the email account Cloudera set up, but received a bounce back notification.

When sponsoring current employees under the permanent labor certification program (PERM), Cloudera purposely failed to recruit US workers in good faith.

The PERM program allows employers to sponsor workers for permanent resident status, only after completing recruitment of US workers. But, as with any recruitment or hiring, employers cannot illegally discriminate against US worker applicants based on their citizenship status during the PERM process.

This lawsuit is part of the Department's Protecting US Workers Initiative, which was relaunched in 2025. The Initiative, under which the Division has already obtained ten settlements in the last year, focuses on companies that illegally discriminate against US workers in favor of those with temporary employment visas.

Cloudera is a data software company that was acquired by private equity firms KKR and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in October 2021 for approximately $5.3 billion. It is no longer a publicly traded company.