The Justice Department announced Monday that it secured an agreement with a Minnesota-based restaurant group doing business as Brick & Bourbon.
The agreement resolves the department’s determination that the restaurant group routinely discriminated against lawful permanent residents when verifying their permission to work in the United States by requiring them to provide more documents than necessary.
“It is unlawful for employers to impose additional or unnecessary requirements on employees because of their citizenship status when checking their permission to work,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Discriminatory treatment during any step of the employment process harms workers who are lawfully participating in our economy and can deprive employers of their talents.”
After conducting an investigation, the Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section concluded that Brick & Bourbon had a longstanding practice of requiring additional and unnecessary documentation from lawful permanent residents, even after they had presented sufficient proof of their permission to work because of their citizenship status.
Lawful permanent residents are sometimes referred to as “green card holders,” but they can show their permission to work using different types of documentation.
As explained in the department’s recently released fact sheet for lawful permanent residents, the Immigration and Nationality Act protects lawful permanent residents from discrimination when an employer is verifying their permission to work.
The INA prohibits employers from asking for specific or unnecessary documents because of a worker’s citizenship, immigration status or national origin.
Employers must allow workers to present whatever acceptable documentation they choose and cannot reject valid documentation that reasonably appears to be genuine and relates to the worker.
Under the terms of the settlement, Brick & Bourbon will pay a $95,000 civil penalty to the United States, train its employees on the INA’s requirements, revise its employment policies and be subject to departmental monitoring.
