U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division has an office dedicated to ensuring that employers are not discriminating against work-authorized individuals based on their national origin or immigration status. It is unlawful to fire or refuse to hire certain workers because of where they are from or because they are not U.S. citizens. The law also protects workers where employers discriminate against them by asking for too many work-authorization (I-9) documents or by rejecting valid documents, and where employers discriminate during the E-Verify process.
If you think you or someone you know has been discriminated against in hiring or firing based on national origin or citizenship status, call the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) at the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice on its Worker Hotline at 1-800-255-7688, 9am-5pm, E.S.T. (TTY for the hearing impaired: 1-800-237-2515). You do not have to provide your name, and telephone interpreters are available in many languages as needed. It is unlawful to intimidate, threaten, or retaliate against anyone for contacting the Hotline, assisting in any way in an investigation, or filing a charge with OSC. For more information, to obtain outreach materials or a charge form, or to learn about OSC’s new worker webinars call the Hotline or visit www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc.
This article was written by OSC as part of a worker outreach program. Reprinted with permission.
About the Author: OSC is the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) and enforces the anti-discrimination provision (§ 274B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. § 1324b.
