Immigration Status

Are you unable to exercise your workplace rights because of your immigration status? In some cases, employers threaten to report undocumented workers to immigration authorities in order to intimidate them and prevent them from asserting their legal rights. This kind of threat is unlawful.

In California, all workers are protected by labor laws regardless of their immigration status. However, not all differential treatment based on immigration status is automatically illegal. For example, under federal law, employers are prohibited from knowingly hiring undocumented workers. This means employers are allowed to consider immigration status to a certain extent when hiring.

That said, employers are not allowed to investigate or question a worker’s immigration status arbitrarily. They may not require more documentation than what is mandated under federal law, nor can they reject documents that are legally valid, even if they are certified copies.

If a worker is lawfully residing in the United States and the employer treats them differently solely because they are an immigrant, that may constitute national origin discrimination, which is prohibited by law. For instance, if an employer treats employees differently based on whether they hold a driver’s license issued to citizens versus one issued to non-citizens, this is considered discriminatory.

Language Use in the Workplace

In general, employers may not restrict employees from speaking a particular language at work. For example, an employer cannot require employees to speak only English in the workplace, as such a rule may amount to national origin discrimination.

As with most legal rules, there are exceptions. If the nature of the job requires the use of a specific language, the employer may implement a language-use policy. However, in doing so, the employer must clearly inform employees when the language restriction applies and what the consequences will be for violating that policy.

JUSTICE FOR WORKERS, P.C. is a law firm dedicated exclusively to representing plaintiffs, that is, workers, in matters related to labor law and workplace injuries. For a free consultation, please contact us at (323) 922-2000. We have offices located in both Los Angeles and Orange County. If we take on your case, you will not be required to pay us anything unless and until we secure compensation on your behalf.