{"id":23527,"date":"2020-08-24T13:28:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T17:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=23527"},"modified":"2020-08-24T13:28:31","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T17:28:31","slug":"justice-department-prosecute-illegal-labor-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/08\/24\/justice-department-prosecute-illegal-labor-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ\u2019s Campaign to Protect U.S. Workers is a Mixed Bag"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A\nDepartment of Justice (DOJ) program is cracking down on companies that hire\nforeign nationals and discriminate against American workers. Evidence suggests there\nis much work to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Launched in 2017, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/blog\/justice-department-marks-two-years-launch-protecting-us-workers-initiative\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">\u201cProtecting U.S. Worker Initiative\u201d<\/a> has snared 10 companies on civil rights violations, collecting a modest $1.2 million in penalties and back pay for affected Americans. A few of the bad actors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>In California, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-settles-claim-against-california-based-staffing-company-favoring-temporary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">AllianceIT<\/a>, a technology staffing company, blocked U.S. applicants by posting a job advertisement soliciting \u201cONLY OPTs.\u201d The Optional Practical Training program permits foreign students holding F-1 visas to engage in temporary employment.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>In Maryland, another tech staffer, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.numbersusa.com\/news\/justice-department-settles-claim-improperly-favoring-temporary-visa-workers-over-us-workers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">ASTA<\/a>, posted job advertisements aimed exclusively at non-U.S. citizens with temporary visas, including H-1B and F-1 visas.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>In Texas, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-announces-sixth-settlement-under-civil-rights-division-s-protecting-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">El Expreso Bus Co.<\/a> illegally denied employment to qualified and available U.S. workers because it preferred hiring foreign drivers with H-2B visas.\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>DOJ also\nwent after companies to protect <em>non-U.S.\ncitizens<\/em> authorized to work in this country:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>In North Carolina, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-settles-immigration-related-discrimination-claim-against-honda-aircraft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Honda Aircraft Co<\/a>., a subsidiary of American Honda Motor Co., was penalized for refusing to hire work-authorized foreign nationals because of their citizenship status, in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act\u2019s (INA) anti-discrimination provision.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>In New York, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-settles-immigration-related-discrimination-claim-against-new-york-hotel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">MJFT Hotels<\/a>, a management company operating a Hyatt Place Hotel, was sanctioned for removing an asylee from the hiring process. Asylees have permanent work authorization under INA.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>In Illinois, a human resources employee at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-settles-immigration-related-discrimination-claim-against-chicago-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Sinai Health System Inc.<\/a> \u201croutinely required newly hired non-U.S. citizen employees to provide specific documentation issued by the Department of Homeland Security to prove employment eligibility.\u201d\u00a0DOJ said this violated INA rules that \u201cprohibit employers from subjecting employees to unnecessary documentary demands based on citizenship status or national origin.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>While DOJ pursues these civil rights cases, the <a href=\"https:\/\/cis.org\/Report\/Employment-Situation-Immigrants-and-Natives-July-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Center for Immigration Studies<\/a> reports that the July unemployment rate for native-born Americans (ages 16 and over) was 10.1 percent, more than double pre-COVID-19 levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\nremains extremely difficult to justify the continued entry of new immigrants on\nthe grounds of any \u2018labor shortage,\u2019\u201d CIS concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In light of high levels of joblessness, here\u2019s hoping DOJ looks into recent allegations that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox5atlanta.com\/news\/calls-for-ice-to-investigate-whos-building-korean-battery-plant-in-jackson-county\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">a South Korean company illegally hired workers<\/a> from its home country to build a large, publicly subsidized battery plant in Georgia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Noting\nthat U.S. Customs and Border Protection had intercepted 33 Korean nationals\nholding fraudulent documents at the Atlanta airport, U.S. Rep. Doug Collins,\nR-Ga., said the group appeared to be \u201cpart of a larger scheme to illegally\nbring [in]foreign workers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prosecuting\nsuch cases to the fullest extent of the law would be the very definition of\n\u201cProtecting U.S. Workers.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Department of Justice (DOJ) program is cracking down on companies that hire foreign nationals and discriminate against American workers. Evidence suggests there is much work to be done. Launched in 2017, the \u201cProtecting U.S. Worker Initiative\u201d has snared 10 companies on civil rights violations, collecting a modest $1.2 million in penalties and back pay<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/08\/24\/justice-department-prosecute-illegal-labor-immigrationreform-com\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":8640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[11],"tags":[848,1524,986,1185],"yst_prominent_words":[9656,3245,9659,2173,2177,7744,4353,9657,2181,2474,5990,2443,9660,1948,9658,9661,1939,2170,2128,1937],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23528,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23527\/revisions\/23528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23527"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}