Justice Department Secures Agreement with Parking Management Company to Resolve Claims of National Origin Discrimination

The Justice Department announced today that it secured a settlement agreement with SP Plus Corporation (SP Plus), a transportation and parking management company headquartered in Chicago. The agreement resolves the department’s determination that SP Plus discriminated against a worker by rejecting a valid document that showed her permission to work and requesting that she provide unnecessary documentation, based on her national origin.

“It is unlawful for employers to reject a valid document showing someone’s permission to work because of where the person was born,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The department is committed to protecting workers from national origin discrimination in the hiring process and eliminating unnecessary barriers to employment.”

After conducting an investigation based on a complaint, the Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) concluded that SP Plus discriminated against a beneficiary of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) based on her national origin. TPS beneficiaries have permission to work in the United States. They can get Employment Authorization Documents that show employers their permission to work. Sometimes, the federal government extends these Employment Authorization Documents past the expiration date on the card. Instructions on how an employer can determine if an Employment Authorization Document has been extended by the federal government direct employers to look at the document’s category code and date of expiration. The department determined that instead of following the federal government’s instructions, SP Plus unlawfully rejected the worker’s valid, extended Employment Authorization Document because she was born in the Bahamas rather than Haiti, the country through which she has TPS. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) prohibits employers from considering an employee’s country of birth or other national origin indicator when verifying a person’s permission to work.

Under the terms of the settlement, SP Plus will pay a civil penalty to the United States, and offer reinstatement and pay backpay to the affected worker. The agreement also requires the company to train its personnel on the INA’s anti-discrimination requirements, revise its employment policies and be subject to departmental monitoring. SP Plus cooperated with the division’s investigation.

IER is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA. Among other things, the statute prohibits discrimination based on citizenship status and national origin in hiring, firing or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; or retaliation and intimidation. 

IER’s website has information about employers’ obligations not to discriminate when hiring workers with TPS and employment rights for workers with TPS. Learn about TPS from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ website. Learn more about IER’s work and how to get assistance through this brief video. Applicants or employees who believe they were discriminated against based on their citizenship, immigration status or national origin in hiring, firing, recruitment or during the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9 and E-Verify); or subjected to retaliation, may file a charge. The public can also call IER’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call IER’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); sign up for a live webinar or watch an on-demand presentation; email IER@usdoj.gov; or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites. Sign up for email updates from IER.