The lawsuit accuses Meta of giving preferential immigration assistance to select employees based on national origin
Meta Platforms is facing a lawsuit filed by former Product Design Manager James Tillinghast, who claims the tech giant wrongfully terminated him after he refused to sign an ‘inaccurate’ immigration document for a colleague, Law Commentary reported. According to a lawsuit filed Monday (Aug 17) in a New Jersey federal district court, the conflict began in 2024 when Meta’s immigration legal team asked Tillinghast to sign a reference letter supporting a Green Card application (an EB-2 National Interest Waiver) for a worker in his department.
The drafted letter allegedly claimed the worker generated roughly $638 million in additional advertising revenue for Meta, directly developed core artificial intelligence and algorithm tools, and led large cross-functional teams.
The outlet mentioned that the manager apparently revised the letter to only include statements he “could truthfully endorse”, because Tillinghast claims these statements were vastly exaggerated.
The lawsuit alleges that after Tillinghast refused to endorse the letter, another manager signed off on it instead.
As per the complaint, the manager’s “refusal was based on his objectively reasonable and good-faith belief that he should not submit materially inaccurate statements to USCIS or lend his professional credentials to unsupported assertions in an immigration proceeding.”
Soon after raising his concerns, Tillinghast’s internal access was reportedly revoked, and he was terminated in September 2024 despite having no prior negative performance records.
While Meta orally cited performance issues for his firing, Tillinghast claims this was an excuse to retaliate against him.
Additionally, the suit accuses Meta of giving preferential immigration assistance to select employees based on national origin rather than neutral, fair criteria.
Tillinghast is seeking over $1 million in damages for lost pay and stock equity.
Meta has not publicly commented on the lawsuit.
