Mistreatment of Immigrant Workers in U.S. Workplaces: Are Discrimination Lawsuits Against Employers a Viable Remedy?

In many parts of the world, immigrant workers do not have access to the same legal protection against mistreatment by employers as citizens, and undocumented workers have less protection than “legal” migrants.  Lack of access to legal protection is due in different contexts to varying combinations of shortcomings in the law itself, lack of enforcement, and to obstacles to making claims.

Currently, in the U.S., although it is illegal for undocumented immigrants to obtain employment, “illegal” workers are nonetheless protected (in principle) by U.S. anti-discrimination laws regardless of of immigrant or immigration status.  While there is no civil or human rights protection against discrimination based on immigrant status per se, immigrants are protected, to a degree, by laws banning discrimination based on race and national origin, as well as sex, religion, age, and disability. However, among many other obstacles, those who complain risk deportation.  Additionally, immigrant workers are concentrated in low wage industry and occupational sectors where labor law and civil rights law violations are rampant.

Some scholars and human rights advocates find U.S. employment law, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as the equal rights enforcement agency, inadequate to protect vulnerable immigrant workers. However, in recent years, the EEOC has filed and settled a growing number of employment discrimination lawsuits on behalf of immigrant workers, many of whom are undocumented. Most of these cases involve charges of sexual and/or national origin harassment. Harassment, in some of these cases includes threats or incidents of sexual and other physical assault as well as verbal and psychological abuse.  The lawsuits have resulted in significant monetary awards, court-mandated workplace reform, and some protections against deportation. My research examines over 80 lawsuit settlements, asking whether and how Title VII lawsuits can or do address the legal vulnerabilities of undocumented immigrant workers.