Staffing Co. Pays Feds $20K to Settle Citizenship Discrimination Claim

DOJ, Feb. 7, 2024

"The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement agreement with Latitude Inc. (Latitude), a staffing company in Hanover, Maryland. The agreement resolves the department’s determination that Latitude violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by discriminating against certain non-U.S. citizens with permission to work in the United States and excluding them from job opportunities based on their citizenship status. “Companies cannot unlawfully exclude all non-U.S. citizens with permission to work in the United States from job opportunities based on their citizenship status,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will continue to hold accountable those who engage in such behavior that violates our nation’s federal civil rights laws.” The department’s investigation determined that, from at least April 2022 through July 2023, Latitude refused to refer, recruit or hire any non-U.S. citizens for several positions with a client company that had requested the restriction without any legal basis. These actions harmed lawful permanent resident workers, non-citizen national workers and workers who have been granted asylum or refugee status by unlawfully deterring them from applying to and failing to advance those who did apply for further consideration in the hiring process.