The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will focus its national-origin bias enforcement on companies found to be showing a preference for hiring immigrant workers over U.S. citizens, the agency recently announced.
“The EEOC is putting employers and other covered entities on notice: If you are part of the pipeline contributing to our immigration crisis or abusing our legal immigration system via illegal preferences against American workers, you must stop,” said EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas. “The EEOC is here to protect all workers from unlawful national origin discrimination, including American workers.”
The agency said it will step up investigations, compliance checks, and litigation to achieve this goal.
“Unlawful bias against American workers, in violation of Title VII, is a large-scale problem in multiple industries nationwide,” Lucas said. “Many employers have policies and practices preferring illegal aliens, migrant workers, and visa holders or other legal immigrants over American workers — in direct violation of federal employment law prohibiting national-origin discrimination.”
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EEOC to Crack Down on Anti-American Employment Bias
SHRM | Mar 2025
Law Articles
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) also prohibits discrimination, enumerating other protected categories based on citizenship status. Congress tasked the DOJ with enforcing this anti-discrimination statute. The DOJ’s Immigrant and Employee Rights (IER) section handles such investigations, which are known to be comprehensive.
In prior administrations, the IER traditionally focused on employment bias against foreign nationals as opposed to bias against U.S. citizens. The first Trump administration attempted to conduct more investigations into bias against U.S. citizens. In 2024, IER came under additional scrutiny by Trump supporters, alleging the section favored investigations into immigrant employees over citizen employees.
Under the second Trump administration, the section is expected to shift its focus to protecting U.S. citizens’ rights. Notably, the INA’s antidiscrimination provisions apply to employers with four or more employees. This difference from Title VII could potentially pave the way for aggrieved employees to bring claims against entities employing from four to fourteen employees.
EEOC’s Focus on Protecting American Workers From National Origin Discrimination Tees Up Potential Increase in Similar DOJ Enforcement
Ogletree | Mar 2025
The EEOC’s announcement amplifies the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to alter the legal landscape and reverses the EEOC’s prior, longstanding goal of protecting immigrant workers – a group the EEOC has historically designated as a “vulnerable population.” In light of these changes, employers are encouraged to conduct a privileged audit of their hiring and employment practices along with hiring data to ensure compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws. Special attention should be given to policies that unlawfully favor, or appear to favor, non-American workers.
From Ally to Adversary: Employers Face New EEOC Scrutiny for Hiring Immigrants
Seyfarth | Feb 2025
Notably, the announcement also indicates that the EEOC’s enforcement focus will include non-American employees who are authorized to work in the United States, including “visa holders and other legal immigrants.” Citing a “large-scale problem in multiple industries nationwide,” Lucas stated that the EEOC is committed to not only “decreasing demand for illegal alien workers,” but also “decreasing abuse of the United States’ legal immigration system.”
EEOC Announces Enforcement Focus on “Illegal Preferences Against American Workers”
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