DOJ Sues Cloudera for Alleged Discrimination Against US Workers in Favor of Temporary Visa Holders

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has sued California-based technology company Cloudera for allegedly discriminating against Americans from applying to high-paying technology jobs. The department claims that the company created a separate recruitment and hiring process to "deter US workers from applying", adding that it "also did not consider them for lucrative technology jobs that the company earmarked for people with temporary employment visa". It further claimed that 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. For those unaware, 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.

Here's the official announcement made by DOJ suing Cloudera

Today, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Cloudera Inc. (Cloudera), a Santa Clara, California-based technology company for violating the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by intentionally discriminating against U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. workers in good faith.

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

This lawsuit is part of the Department's Protecting U.S. 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 U.S. workers in favor of those with temporary employment visas.