The California agricultural company allegedly violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by requiring lawful permanent residents (LPRs) to submit more or different documents than required to establish their permanent work authorization.
The DOJ investigated the complaint and found that WestPak engaged in a pattern or practice of discriminatory practices based on a worker’s citizenship status.
In its investigation, the Justice Department’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) found that WesPak “maintained a system for recording employee information that triggered reverification of the work authorization of LPRs but not U.S. citizens even though the LPRs had provided documents for Form 1-9 completion that were sufficient to establish their permanent work authorization at initial hire.”
The IER determined that the California agricultural company “improperly and unlawfully requested more or different documents” from its workers to prove their ongoing work authorization.
In a statement, Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, commented, “Employers must carefully examine their procedures for re-verifying continuing work authorization to ensure that they protect workers against discrimination based on citizenship status, and we are pleased with WesPak’s agreement to do so.”
