On Feb. 19, 2025, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that it would be “protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination” in part by “increasing enforcement of employment antidiscrimination laws against employers that illegally prefer non-American workers.” Acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas stated:
“The EEOC is putting employers and other covered entities on notice: if you are part of the pipeline contributing to our immigration crisis or abusing our legal immigration system via illegal preferences against American workers, you must stop. The law applies to you, and you are not above the law. The EEOC is here to protect all workers from unlawful national origin discrimination, including American workers.”
Lucas’ statement and the EEOC’s broader announcement are in line with the January 2025 executive orders executed by President Trump during his first week in office, targeting immigration and diversity, equity and inclusion. Previous McGuireWoods legal alerts addressed these executive orders.
The EEOC is tasked with enforcing key federal employment laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of national origin, among other protected characteristics. While the text and underlying law of Title VII has not changed, the announcement from the EEOC marks a shift in its enforcement priorities toward increased enforcement on employers (and staffing agencies) that it believes have illegal policies or preferences for “illegal aliens, migrant workers, and visa holders or other legal immigrants” over American workers.
The EEOC’s announcement additionally referred to collaboration with other federal agencies including the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor — indicating that the agencies will likely be sharing information with each other for enforcement action. As one example, there already has been an increase in workplace raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is housed within DHS. There likely will be a substantial increase in Form I-9 audits — a process by which DHS agents could easily gather information about the composition of an employer’s workforce, including employee national origin and immigration status. Employers should be cognizant that information obtained during these types of immigration-related enforcement actions may be shared with the EEOC and could lead to further enforcement actions.
Now is a good a time for employers to review employment- and immigration-related policies and procedures that may be implicated by the EEOC’s announcement and Trump’s executive orders.
For questions about the EEOC’s announcement and its implications for organizations, please contact the authors, your McGuireWoods contact, or a member of the firm’s labor and employment, affirmative action or immigration teams.