The debate over whether tech companies are prioritizing foreign workers over Americans through the H-1B visa has been brought right to one of the programs biggest supporters—Elon Musk.
A lawsuit filed in California alleges Musk’s Tesla is actively prioritizing H-1B hires over U.S. workers, with one plaintiff claiming he was going for a job at the company, after being contacted by a recruiter, only to be told that the position was H-1B only.
Another plaintiff said she had applied for two positions and had both times been rejected “because of her citizenship,” per the complaint, which aims to be used as a class-action suit against the electric vehicle manufacturer.
“This is an issue that, in our view, has plagued the IT sector for a while, that there’s a distinct preference, with tech companies, to prefer visa employees, and primarily H-1B employees, for American jobs,” Daniel Kotchen, partner with Kotchen and Low in Washington, D.C., the firm behind the lawsuit, told Newsweek.
“Wages have been depressed, as indentured labor has been used to fulfill American jobs, and Americans have been displaced in the process. And the only winners in all this, in our view, are corporations.”
Newsweek reached out to Tesla for comment via email Thursday and Monday mornings, but did not receive a response before publishing.
What Are the Accusations Against Tesla?
“Tesla has engaged in a pattern and practice of discriminating against U.S. citizens,” reads the complaint, filed in the Northern District of California on September 12.
It alleges that Tesla knowingly and intentionally favors visa holders over Americans, denying employment to those with the right experience and qualifications purely because they are citizens.
The first plaintiff, Scott Taub, is a tech worker with over 20 years’ experience in the industry. In September 2023, he was approached by a third-party recruiter about a short-term role at Tesla. While Taub met the qualifications listed, one thing stood out: that the position was reserved for “H-1B only,” immediately disqualifying him.
In August 2025, Taub applied for another job at Tesla, through its careers website. When asked if he required sponsorship to work in the U.S., he ticked “no” because he is a U.S. citizen, and he believes this is what led to his not being interviewed or hired, according to the complaint.
The other lead plaintiff in the suit, Sofia Brander, is a human resources (HR) specialist who previously worked for Tesla in 2017 and 2018 on short-term contracts. In 2023 and 2024, she applied for permanent positions. Despite being more than qualified for the roles, including having Tesla experience, she was never contacted further for the positions and believes, like Taub, that U.S. citizenship was the deciding factor, the lawsuit argues.
The pair are seeking class action on behalf of all U.S. citizens who have applied for roles with Musk’s company and been denied in favor of foreign workers.
“If a class is certified, these two individuals will represent the interests of other similarly situated applicants, employees of Tesla,” Kotchen said. “So that is a powerful tool, because what starts out as a two plaintiff case expands to other folks who were also denied employment under the same circumstances or released under the same circumstances as these folks.”
The attorney said this could all take some time, with Tesla yet to respond to the complaint and the case likely to roll on for at least a year.
How Does Tesla Use the H-1B?
The complaint shines the spotlight on Tesla’s H-1B usage, which has soared in recent years as the company expanded rapidly in Texas and California, with total employees around 70,000 in 2025. Many of these workers are in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) roles, which often utilize the H-1B visa.
From 2018 to 2024, Tesla secured over 5,400 H-1Bs, the complaint says. This includes new visas, renewals and amendments. In 2018, the total was 401 compared to 1,293 in 2024.
The complaint adds that the totals do not include those filed on behalf of Tesla through third-party recruitment agencies, and these are often exempt from the federal government’s 65,000 H-1B yearly cap.
Plaintiffs claim that while Tesla hired over 1,350 new H-1B visa holders, it also laid off more than 6,000 workers across the U.S., who they believe were mostly U.S. citizens, according to the suit.
The lawsuit alleges that Tesla does not make the same efforts to keep its American workers as it does H-1B holders, because the company has to actively apply to renew those visas on a rolling basis to keep employees in the country.
A Wider Argument Over the H-1B
The lawsuit falls amid a fiery debate over the H-1B—one of many work-based visas, but has somehow become the biggest point of tension in the legal immigration system.
Critics of the system have long argued it allows employers to seek cheaper foreign labor rather than offer jobs to American citizens or legally present immigrants, effectively suppressing wages.
Another key issue in 2025 is the concern that STEM graduates are leaving college without the ability to get a job in the fields in which they trained, while Americans are laid off but foreign workers continue arriving on H-1Bs.
“There’s no defensible justification for how the H-1B visa program has been used by corporations,” Kotchen said. “So, this is a bipartisan issue, and obviously the Trump administration has spoken out against it in a very meaningful way.”
In recent weeks, the White House has moved to tighten the rules around the visa, including a $100,000 fee for new applications, while raising wage expectations and the skill levels immigrants should have. Members of Congress are also working to reform the visa, which has largely gone unchanged since its creation in 1990.
Kotchen believes this suit will continue exerting pressure on the tech industry as a whole, and that after working for more than a decade to bring attention to what he sees as abuses under the H-1B, he will finally witness some longer-lasting gains.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and the exposure of how the program is being used, and has been used for some time, has been very helpful,” he said. “I think that corporations, it’s not as if they were ignorant of how the program is being used. What’s happening now is it’s being exposed for how the program’s been used and there’s not a justification for it.”