The Justice Department has accused Cloudera of creating a sham hiring process that allegedly blocked American workers from applying for jobs reserved for foreign visa holders.
The complaint, filed April 28 by the Department of Justice’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, alleges Cloudera engaged in a “pattern or practice of citizenship status discrimination” by using a separate recruitment process for at least seven high-paying technology jobs tied to the permanent labor certification, or PERM, process.
According to the complaint, the positions paid between $180,000 and $294,000 annually and were effectively steered toward workers on temporary visas, primarily H-1B holders seeking permanent residency.
Federal officials alleged that Cloudera directed applicants for those jobs to submit resumes to a dedicated email address — [email protected] — that did not accept messages from outside senders, resulting in bounce-back errors and preventing U.S. applicants from reaching the company.
The complaint alleges Cloudera certified to the Department of Labor that it had conducted good-faith recruitment and found no qualified U.S. workers.
“The job advertisements invited U.S. worker candidates to submit applications to a dedicated email address. However, there was a catch: the email address did not accept any messages from external email accounts,” the complaint states.
The Justice Department alleges Cloudera’s conduct unlawfully deterred U.S. workers from applying, prevented consideration of those who attempted to apply, and denied them jobs the company had allegedly reserved for visa holders.
The government is seeking civil penalties, back pay with interest, and an order requiring Cloudera to cease the alleged practices.
Cloudera denied wrongdoing. “Cloudera is proud to hire American workers. We do not discriminate against U.S. workers—or anyone—on the basis of citizenship status,” a company spokesperson told The Register. The spokesperson added that the company believes “the government’s claims misunderstand both our hiring processes and our intent.”
The case centers on the PERM process, which employers use when sponsoring foreign workers already in the United States for permanent residency. PERM is the end stage of the H-1B visa process for many H-1B workers, and it requires U.S. employers to attempt to find a qualified American before the alien worker can transition to permanent legal status via a Green Card.
Around 30,000-40,000 H-1B aliens adjust to permanent status through available legal pathways, per a 2019-2020 USCIS report.
The PERM process is intended to ensure that no qualified and available U.S. workers are displaced. The complaint alleges Cloudera subverted those protections.
The case also touches on broader debates over the H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in many white-collar occupations. The H-1B program generally does not require employers to first recruit U.S. workers before seeking foreign labor, except in limited circumstances involving certain H-1B-dependent employers or willful violators under federal law.
Between fiscal years 2015 and 2025, Cloudera employed at least 724 H-1B workers, according to the USCIS H-1B data hub.
The lawsuit arrives amid increased scrutiny of labor practices tied to high-skilled visa programs. It follows other recent legal challenges involving major technology employers, including a landmark discrimination ruling against Cognizant, previously reported by The Dallas Express, in which a federal judge found that several workforce policies had a disparate impact on U.S. workers and favored H-1B holders.
The Justice Department framed the Cloudera case as part of its “Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative,” in a press release.
“Employers cannot use the PERM sponsorship process as a backdoor for discriminating against U.S. workers,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the statement. “The Division will not hesitate to sue companies who intentionally deter U.S. workers from applying to American jobs.”
Court filings indicate that Dhillon and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric Sell, along with several other attorneys, including Varda Hussain, Sam Shirazi, and Liza Zamd, brought the case.
Cloudera has not yet filed a response in the administrative case. The allegations remain claims by the government, and liability has not been determined.
