Mar 28, 2024 5 min read Immigration

Justice Department Repeatedly Punishing Staffing Firms for Job Posting Violations

It's easy pickings for DOJ regulators

There is a right way and a wrong way to address immigration status in a U.S. job posting. The DOJ website explains here. It's pretty simple:

Right way: "Must be authorized to work in the U.S."

Wrong way: "Must be U.S. Citizen" or "Must be U.S. Citizen or green card holder."

The Justice Department is finding easy pickings among staffing firms that do not train their personnel on how to create a legal job posting or that otherwise fail to implement job posting quality controls. The problem seems particularly prevalent among tech staffing firms, which tend to use a lot of foreign national talent. The job posters most likely are trying to convey that the firm will not sponsor an H-1B visa, which perfectly legal if you say it that way, because there is no law requiring employers to sponsor a foreign national's visa for work in the U.S.

But there is a law prohibiting "citizenship" discrimination, and finding job post violators is easy. All the regulators need to do is search the Internet until they come across a firm that has a few "wrong way" posts. Then the "gotcha" bell will go off at the DOJ and the perpetrator will be subjected to a harrowing two-year investigation by the same federal agency that PUTS PEOPLE IN JAIL. Not that the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is going to do that in these circumstances. But it will cost you a hefty settlement sum and subject you to years of post-settlement monitoring. And there's that embarrassing DOJ press release. All because your job poster did not know any better.

This time, it's Frank Recruiting Group, a global tech staffing firm based in England. The Department's press release tells the oft-repeated story:

The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement agreement with Frank Recruitment Group Incorporated (FRG), an information technology staffing company that does business.... The agreement resolves the department’s determination that FRG violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by excluding or deterring certain non-U.S. citizens with permission to work in the United States from applying to job opportunities because of their citizenship status.

“Employers cannot unlawfully discriminate against individuals granted asylum or refugee status in hiring,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The department will continue to hold employers accountable for imposing barriers to employment based on citizenship status, in violation of our nation’s civil rights laws.”

A related trap for employers is asking for specific forms of identification during the I-9 process, as SLN's has reported in the past: