Immigration Law Cited for Employers’ Bias in Hiring

A 4-year-old law designed to curb illegal immigration has led to hiring discrimination based on national origins, the General Accounting Office reported today.

As many as 10% of the 4.6 million employers considered under the GAO survey may be practicing job bias based on national origins because of confusion over the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, the report said.

Discrimination related to the law “is serious but not pervasive,” the congressional investigative agency said in its 162-page report.

Employers discriminate “because the law’s verification system does not provide a simple or reliable method to verify job applicants’ eligibility to work,” the report said.

Bias might be reduced, it said, if employers were given more information about the law’s requirements and a simpler and more reliable system.

The law requires employers to complete an eligibility form for each newly hired worker and allows the employees to establish their eligibility by presenting any one of 17 different documents, such as a U.S. passport or birth certificate or an alien registration card.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Labor Department may inspect the forms. Employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers are subject to civil and criminal penalties.

The provisions were part of an overall bill designed to reduce the number of illegal aliens flooding over the nation’s southern border in search of jobs. Concerns were raised in Congress during debate on the bill that employers would discriminate against individuals who were “foreign-looking.”

The GAO found that the law “has apparently reduced illegal immigration and is not an unnecessary burden on employers.”

“GAO also found that there was widespread discrimination,” the report said. “But was there discrimination as a result of (the law)? That is the key question Congress directed GAO to answer. GAO’s answer is yes.”