DOJ Slams Farmland Foods for Immigration-Related Employment Discrimination

The Department of Justice reached a settlement with Farmland Foods Inc., a major producer of pork products, resolving allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination by imposing unnecessary and excessive documentary requirements on non-U.S. citizens and foreign-born U.S. citizens when establishing their employment eligibility.

According to an investigation by the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC), Farmland required all newly hired non-U.S. citizens and some foreign-born U.S. citizens at its Monmouth, Illinois plant to present specific and, in many cases, extra work-authorization documents beyond those required by federal law.  Farmland has agreed to pay $290,400 in civil penalties, the highest civil penalty paid through settlement since enactment of the INA’s anti-discrimination provision in 1986.