Meta must face lawsuit claiming it prefers foreign workers over US citizens

A US appeals court on Thursday revived a software engineer’s proposed class action claiming Meta Platforms refused to hire him because it preferred to give jobs to foreign workers who are paid lower wages.

The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 ruling said that a Civil War-era law barring discrimination in contracts based on “alienage” extends to bias against U.S. citizens.

The decision reverses a California federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit by Purushothaman Rajaram, a naturalized US citizen who says Meta passes over American workers for jobs in favor of cheaper visa recipients. Rajaram is seeking to represent a class that includes thousands of workers.