Man Says He Lost Government Contract Job Due to Ethnic Discrimination

A Fremont man is claiming that he lost a government job due to ethnic discrimination, according to media reports.

According to the Fremont Argus, Zafar Kahn Yousufzai worked as a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense for nine months in 2010 but was let go after a background check.

Yousufzai, who was born in Pakistan but has been an American citizen for 25 years, was denied a security clearance by the U.S. government because he had “immediate family abroad,” the newspaper reports.

The denied clearance caused him to lose his job with private communications firm Concepts & Strategies, which often contracts with the U.S. government, according to the Argus.

While at Concepts & Strategies, Yousufzai worked with U.S. Central Command where he communicated U.S. policies to those abroad by analyzing social media and posting pro-U.S. messages on foreign websites, according to the Argus. Yousufzai and his team used pen names but openly identified themselves as U.S. government employees, the Argus noted.

Yousufzai tried to appeal the security clearance denial but the government’s decision was upheld. It was only recently that he received an explanation as to why he was denied the clearance.

Yousufzai, who currently works at an East Bay nonprofit assisting seniors, believes the denial was unwarranted.  He told the Argus:

"My family in Pakistan has never been involved in politics; my sister is a teacher, another sister is a housewife and my brother owns a business. If this happened to me, it can happen to any U.S. immigrant citizen."  

Read the full Argus report here.

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