Hiring Bias Against Legal Aliens Called Widespread

More than half a million employers follow a “pattern of discrimination” in their refusal to hire legal aliens and first-generation Americans for fear of contravening recent changes in immigration laws, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission charged Friday.

The commission reviewed a report by the General Accounting Office on the Immigration Control and Reform Act of 1986, which prohibits employers from hiring illegal aliens.

The law requires employees to provide proof of citizenship or legal status in the United States. But based on an employer survey conducted by the GAO, employers are discriminating against potential employees who only look or sound foreign, the commission said.

According to the survey, 16% of the employers said they had begun using new methods of screening applicants for jobs since the immigration law was implemented. Ten percent said they hired only U.S. citizens, and 7% said they asked for documents establishing legal status only from applicants who looked or sounded foreign. More than 80% of those reporting that they had taken these precautions said they feared the possibility of sanctions.

“We think the survey points to a pattern, if not a widespread pattern, of discrimination,” said commission spokesman John Eastman, adding that Hispanics and Asians are the two groups most frequently discriminated against.

Eastman said the commission will ask the GAO to provide more data on discriminatory practices. If this data reveals widespread patterns of discrimination, it could lead to a change in the immigration law, including a provision that would remove employer sanctions, Eastman said.