Justice Department Files a Lawsuit Alleging Employment Discrimination

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 had as one of its principal purposes stemming the tide of illegal immigration. To accomplish this goal, the Act imposes penalties on employers who hire undocumented aliens. This proscription produced a fear that employer would react to the treat of penalties by refusing to hire all noncitizens (which, given the restrictive construction given to Title VII by the Court, would be permissible) and discriminating generally against "foreign looking" individuals. Consequently, the Act makes it an "unfair immigration-related practice to discriminate against any individual (other than an unauthorized alien)

(A) because of such individual's national origin, or
(B) in the case of a citizen or an intending citizen because of such   individual's citizenship status.

The proscriptions against national origin discrimination are a direct overlap with the proscriptions of national origin discrimination in Title VII. To avoid the problem of overlapping enforcement, the Immigration Reform and Control Act provides coverage to all employers of three or more employees, and exempts an entity's discrimination because of national origin discrimination if the entity is covered by Title VII. Thus, the Immigration Act proscribes national origin discrimination for all employers having between three and fifteen employees.

In prohibiting all employers from discriminating because of citizenship, the Immigration Act extended protections against alienage discrimination well beyond that provided in Title VII, and in so doing protected American citizens against discrimination which favored aliens.

These protections were not accomplished, however, by amending Title VII, and thus do not allow the enforcement actions of that statute to be invoked by a victim of citizenship discrimination. Rather, the Immigration Act established entirely new enforcement mechanisms and procedure within the Department of Justice.

On July 14, 2011 the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Mar-Jac Poultry Inc., a poultry processing plant in Gainesville, Ga., alleging that Mar-Jacrequires all newly hired non-U.S. citizens to produce specific documents during the Form I-9 process in order to secure their jobs, but the company does not require U.S. citizens to produce any specific documentation. The non-U.S. citizens subjected to the practice were determined to be work authorized by E-Verify, the Department of Homeland Security's Internet-based employment eligibility verification system.

It appears that the Mar-Jac Poultry Inc.'s actions violate the Immigration Act and Title VII by preferring aliens from one nation or area over aliens of a different origin, and a form of citizenship discrimination.

For more information about protection against employment discrimination under the federal immigration law, contact the Law Offices of Norka M. Schell, LLC