The Justice Department announced today that it reached a settlement agreement with a company based in Rome, N.Y., which manufactures custom and prototype cables, wire harnesses and electro-mechanical assemblies. The agreement resolves allegations that the company violated the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by limiting its hiring practices to U.S. citizens.
According to the department’s investigation, the company restricted employment to U.S. citizens, despite the fact that no law, regulation, executive order or government contract required the limitation. Although the company is a federal contractor subject to the International Traffic and Arms Regulations (ITAR), ITAR does not require or permit employers to limit job applicants to U.S. citizens. The INA’s anti-discrimination provision only allows such hiring restrictions when necessary to comply with a law, regulation, executive order or government contract.
Under the terms of the agreement, the company will terminate its unwarranted citizenship requirement for employment, modify its employment eligibility verification policies and procedures to reflect the INA’s protections, train its human resources staff about the employer’s responsibilities to avoid discrimination in the employment eligibility verification process, and be subject to reporting and compliance monitoring by the department for three years. The case settled prior to the Justice Department filing a complaint in this matter.
