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Fired for wife's citizenship status

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tdh28

Guest
New Mexico

I was fired today because my wife is not a US citizen. We are currently separated and going to get a divorce. I am newly hired and my company's job offer, which I signed, says nothing about obtaining a security clearance for this position. The offer does state that employment can be terminated for any reason, but an additional letter from the company states that all applicants are considered regardless of national origin, marital or veteran status, any other legally protected status, .... The company wanted to obtain a temporary clearance for me, but couldn't due to my wife's citizenship. It is not impossible to obtain a security clearance, it just takes longer going through the normal clearance process. In fact another company previously conducted a preliminary background check on both myself and my wife and concluded that my wife would not pose a problem obtaining a clearance. My supervisor stated that his company is not willing to wait for the clearance process. It just so happened that the morning I was fired, the FBI was scheduled to conduct their annual security audit, and I was promptly fired before they showed up.

Can anyone tell me if the company has a legal right to terminate my employment?
 
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cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Just because one company was willing to wait on the delay for clearance, does not obligate every company to do so.

Under the circumstances you describe, yes, it was legal.
 
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tdh28

Guest
Who do you trust???

O.K. here is what I really think. How is it that the guy that is running for president has a wife that isn't a natural born citizen of the United States and I can't hold a job as an engineer because my wife is not a US citizen? I'm sure as a president, he will have much more access to top secret material that I will ever have. I didn't know that I had to pick my wife accordingly for an American job. Well, except apparently when applying for the presidency. What is this country coming to when foreigners can have our technical jobs, but US citizen can not because of national security. Last time I checked, I was a US citizen. I even spent 6 years in the military and held the same clearance while I was there. Now that I married someone from another country, I am some sort of traitor? HELLO, last time I checked Ukraine was an ally of the United States. They even sent troops to Kuwait to help out in the war. I guess that I just can't be trusted. Instead, let's put our trust in the guys that fired me without even attempting to do a proper background check!!!!
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
This is a fine line distinction but let me try to make it clearer.

They are not refusing to hire you because your wife is not a citizen.

They are refusing to hire you because your wife's citizenship will make it impossible for you to get the security clearance IN THE TIME FRAME THEY NEED YOU TO GET IT IN.

If they were saying, sorry, we won't hire anyone who's married to a non-citizen, THAT would be illegal. But in this case, they need you to get a clearance within a certain length of time and you will not be able to provide that. REGARDLESS of the reason you are not able to provide it, this is legal. It's the lack of clearance in the time frame that's the problem, not your wife's nationality.
 

rmet4nzkx

Senior Member
cbg said:
This is a fine line distinction but let me try to make it clearer.

They are not refusing to hire you because your wife is not a citizen.

They are refusing to hire you because your wife's citizenship will make it impossible for you to get the security clearance IN THE TIME FRAME THEY NEED YOU TO GET IT IN.
A fine point, they were not refusing to hire him, they had already hired him, signed the job offer and the job offer contained no requirement for a security clearance which he had previously held while in the military and no reason to not expect to pass again. I am familiar with these job offer letters and they do state the offer is contigent upon clearance and a number of other details. These are form letters with specific details added in and no reason to omit something as significant as security clearance or deadlines in the offer letter. They gave the reason for his firing as it would take too long for clearance, which was not a part of the offer, because of his marriage. Although they had the right to fire him without disclosing the reason, they stated it was for that reason so there would be some collateral estoppel involved here which suggests discrimination due to marital status, the firing happened to be just before the FBI came through. That is why I suggested the EEOC, let him hash it out there, also termination related to security clearance might haunt him in the future, when in fact no security clearance was run.
 
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lmcdonal

Guest
Although I do not know the laws in New Mexico I beleive that you should go to the EEOC. They did not state that clearance was needed and in fact they were only looking for a "temporary" clearance. I know that in the state of California they just approved a lawsuit for a guy that was terminated because of the offer letter terms not being met even though it contained an at will statement. I beleive that they did a wrongful termination and action needs to be taken on them to prevent this from happening to someone else in the future. You need to go to the Equal Employment Oppertunity Commission (EEOC). Good luck.
 
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tdh28

Guest
Not a question of Hiring

They were not refusing to hire me. THEY FIRED ME. There is a difference. I was already working at the company when my employment was terminated. My contract said nothing about being subject to obtaining a security clearance.
 

Beth3

Senior Member
Are you sure there's an employment contract in place? In your first post, you cite a job offer; now you refer to it as a contract. The difference in legal implications is very significant.
 
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tdh28

Guest
Job offer

My job offer and contract are the same. This outlines both pay and terms of employment. This is what I signed and what the Vice President signed.
 

Beth3

Senior Member
But the question remains where there was a bonafide employment contract in place. If obtaining a security clearance was never mentioned, then it's possible the employer breeched the terms of the contract (if one actually exists) and you may have recourse through civil litigation.

What you need to do is to take the job offer and/or employment contract to an employment law attorney and obtain an expert legal opinion.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Between this forum and the others where I also post, I read approximately 100 posts a day, and respond to a fair percentage of those. Occasionally I am going to slip and say something like, refused to hire, when I should have said fire. Mea culpa. The answer remains the same.
 
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tdh28

Guest
Should they be allowed to get away with this in the future? If it is a requirement to obtain a security clearance to work at their company, then they should screen their applicants before hiring them. It is unethical for a company to hire and fire people in such a manner and it should be illegal to do so.
 

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