Is It Discrimination to Fire an Employee Over Immigration Status or E-Verify Issues?

A Different Question Than 'Can This Employee Work Here'

This is not the same issue as an undocumented employee's eligibility for workers' compensation benefits after an injury, that's a benefits-eligibility question. This is about discrimination liability arising from how and why a termination decision is made once an immigration status or E-Verify issue surfaces.

An owner who discovers a work-authorization problem post-hire still needs to make that decision carefully, because the termination process itself can generate a claim even when the underlying authorization concern is legitimate.

Where Federal Enforcement Draws the Line

The Department of Justice's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section specifically enforces against citizenship-status discrimination and the misuse of E-Verify, including situations where employers apply verification requirements unevenly across employees.

Separately, the EEOC's national origin discrimination guidance confirms that disparate treatment involving national origin, citizenship status, visa status, or immigration status is a reportable form of discrimination.

Practical Restaurant Scenarios

Common patterns that create exposure include:

• Requesting additional work-authorization documents only from employees of certain national origins
• Terminating one employee over an E-Verify mismatch while overlooking a similar mismatch for another
• Using an immigration-status discovery as cover for an unrelated, discriminatory motive

How This Connects to Broader Compliance

Because immigration-status terminations often intersect with leave and documentation timing, for example an employee raising the issue around the same time they request medical or family leave, it's worth reviewing how those overlapping exposures are handled. See FMLA and Paid Sick Leave Violations: An Overlooked EPLI Exposure for that adjacent risk.