"Papers, please"
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A Chattanooga trucking company will be forced to pay the federal government $700,000 for what the government said were discriminatory hiring practices.
“The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a $700,000 agreement with Covenant Transport Inc. (Covenant), as well as the affiliated entity Transport Management Services LLC (Transport), two transportation logistics and long-haul trucking companies headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee,” said a press release from the Department of Justice. “The agreement resolves the department’s determination that the company violated the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by routinely discriminating against non-U.S. citizen workers when checking their permission to work in the United States.”
According to the DOJ, Covenant and Transport “routinely discriminated against non-U.S. citizens by requiring lawful permanent residents to show their Permanent Resident Cards (known as green cards) and by requiring other non-U.S. citizens to show documents related to their immigration status.”
“Employers cannot discriminate against non-U.S. citizens by demanding specific or unnecessary documents from them to prove their permission to work,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, according to the release. “The Justice Department is committed to ensuring compliance with our federal civil rights laws so that non-U.S. citizens with permission to work can contribute their talents to our workforce.”
The companies asked non-citizens to provide them with “List A” documents when “List B” or “List C” documents would suffice. For that, they were found to violate the anti-discrimination law.
Back in the day, I worked in a factory which employed some "laborers." Every now and then, some officials from an agency I don't recall would show up, asking for documentation of legal status.