Meta Hit with Lawsuit Claiming It Favors Foreign Workers Over US Citizens — Mark Zuckerberg-Led Tech Giant Calls It 'Baseless'

On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that Meta Platforms, Inc. META must face a lawsuit alleging it systematically favors foreign workers.

What Happened: U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in San Francisco allowed a proposed class-action lawsuit to proceed, brought by Purushothaman Rajaram, Ekta Bhatia, and Qun Wang, who claim Meta rejected them in favor of foreign workers despite their qualifications, reported Reuters.

The plaintiffs argue that Meta has a pattern of prioritizing visa holders for employment, a claim supported by court-cited statistics: 15% of Meta's U.S. workforce holds H-1B visas, compared to 0.5% across all industries.

See Also: Meta Gears Up For AI Dominance With $200 Billion Data Center Project: Report

Meta denied the allegations, stating the claims are "baseless" and that there is no evidence it intended to discriminate.

Why It Matters: The lawsuit against Meta comes amid a backdrop of ongoing debates over using H-1B visas in the tech industry. 

In 2020, President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending new H-1B visas, arguing they should go only to highly skilled, well-paid workers and not replace Americans.

A federal judge struck down the order, prompting his administration to impose stricter eligibility rules and higher salary requirements. Another judge later blocked some of those changes.

In December 2024, Trump defended the program, saying, "I've been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It's a great program."

Amazon topped the list of H-1B visa sponsors in fiscal year 2024, filing 10,969 Labor Condition Applications (LCA) with an average salary of $149,812, according to myvisajobs.com's ranking of the top 200 employers.

Cognizant Technology Solutions followed with 8,688 applications and an average salary of $101,773, while Ernst & Young filed 8,674 applications, offering an average of $143,378. Tata Consultancy Services and Google rounded out the top five, with 8,120 and 7,649 applications, respectively. Google offered the highest average salary among them at $178,184.

Other major tech firms on the list include Microsoft (6,649 applications, $163,672 average salary), Meta (4,566 applications, $199,944), and Intel (3,242 applications, $145,250).

Image via Shutterstock

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.