Legal Center Targets Race Discrimination in Hiring

When the federal government passed the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act to curb the number of illegal immigrants, it also touched off a series of unfair and illegal employment practices by employers, according to workers rights advocates.

The law, which made it illegal to hire undocumented workers, has scared many employers into discriminating against certain individuals, these advocates say. Not wanting to risk violating the law, some employers won’t hire individuals who speak with an accent or appear “foreign,” said Sharon Chung, coordinator of an anti-job discrimination program at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

But by doing so, these employers violate another aspect of the law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin or citizenship. A 1990 General Accounting Office report found that 19% of employers surveyed discriminated on the basis of national origin or citizenship, either unintentionally or intentionally.

Concerned about the law’s effect on Asian and Asian-American workers, the legal center began an education program a year ago to teach immigrant workers and employers alike the details of the 1986 act.

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The law requires employers to check new employees’ work papers, but that becomes complicated because of the anti-discrimination provisions. Employers cannot ask about workers’ citizenship, but are required to ask for proof of work authorization at the time of hire.

“An employer could ask during an interview: ‘If we hired you, could you provide proof of work authorization?’ But they can’t ask: ‘Are you a U.S. citizen?’ ” Chung said.

Furthermore, employers cannot specify which documents the worker may submit as proof of work authorization. A federal list of acceptable documents includes a U.S. passport and an INS work permit. If a new employee submits any one of the documents, an employer cannot demand more, nor question the validity of documents that appear genuine.

Using education efforts in the Latino community as models, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center launched its program primarily to inform Asian workers throughout the county of their rights. But teaching employers has also become an important part of the program.

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The grass-roots, three-person staff--Chung, a supervising attorney and a volunteer worker--conducts workshops and distributes bilingual pamphlets in Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese at adult and vocational schools, chambers of commerce, community service agencies and job sites.

Oyie Esguerra, a five-year Los Angeles city employee, said the information she received at a recent workshop was helpful because she fears that many qualified immigrants are afraid of applying for many jobs because of their citizenship status.

“You only have to prove you’re eligible for employment, not your citizenship. There’s a difference,” said Esguerra. “If people are not aware of that, they may not pursue a lot of opportunities.”

As president of the Los Angeles Filipino Assn. of City Employees, Esguerra recently had Chung present a workshop to a group of about 40 city workers, most of them Filipino.

Chung hopes to expand the education program as it enters its second year by providing workshops at larger corporations, which, she said, can be some of the most blatant violators of the law, and at business management schools, in the hope of educating future employers.

The program is funded by the federal Office of Special Counsel, which also investigates job discrimination complaints. The legal center has helped three individuals over the past year file claims with the federal agency.

Information: (213) 748-2022, Ext. 34.