When hiring spanish speaking employees, are employers allowed to discriminate by hiring only "native" speakers

I just heard about this recently, and it has me wondering:

I heard about how HR reps, when hiring people for roles that involve speaking spanish, will give preferential treatment to individuals who are more "natural" spanish speakers (e.g. grew up speaking spanish) as opposed to another individual who, REGARDLESS of being completely fluent and having spent years studying Spanish (and possibly even possessing a PhD in linguistics) isn't a "natural born" spanish speaker.

Is this kind of preferential hiring legal? Or can HR show preference to people who grew up speaking spanish as opposed to those who struggled later in life to learn/master the language?

Thanks.

Answers:
Yes the employer has the right to hire the best person for the job, and education may or may not be a factor.

It should depend on the job they are being hired for.

If being not only fluent, but a native Spanish Speaker means that the person hired might pick up on a slang term or nuance that would benefit the employer and might be missed by the person who has a PHD in Spanish but didn't grow up hearing it, then in my opinion, the employer should have the right to choose what is best for the company.

Try it in this context: If I am hiring someone for a sales job, do I want the person with a PHD in Marketing, and very little experience; or do I want to hire the person with a high school diploma who earned $15 million as a salesman for his company last year?

Many companies have hiring rules about level of education and salary. They may simply want to pay less for the same job.
Sounds like a bunch of bull to me (to it being legal)... I don't see why discriminating like that would help the company, considering there are more people fluent in Spanish from taking classes that have more education that "natural born" speakers...
it is not discrimination and it is allowed for now.

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