DOJ: Firm Discriminated Against Americans in Favor of Foreign Workers

An IT staffing services firm, with an office in Hyderabad, India, discriminated against qualified Americans for white-collar jobs in favor of foreign workers with the Optional Training Program (OPT), the Department of Justice (DOJ) concludes.

This week, DOJ attorneys announced a settlement with AllianceIT — which has billion-dollar corporate clients such as Cisco, CVS, Expedia, Humana, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo — after the firm was found to have discriminated against Americans for jobs in favor of foreign OPT workers.

AllianceIT, according to the DOJ, discriminated against Americans with job postings where they advertised for “ONLY OPT’s who can work.”

As Breitbart News has long reported, the OPT program ensures that corporations like Amazon, Google, Deloitte, and Intel can hire thousands of foreign nationals at a 15 percent discount. Foreign OPT workers originally arrive on F-1 student visas before they can eventually enter into the program to remain in the U.S. and take white-collar jobs.

The program helps shift billions of dollars from heartland communities to metropolises in blue states with wealthy residents.

Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division said in a statement:

Companies cannot place U.S. students at a disadvantage for job opportunities by advertising a hiring preference for foreign students with visas. The Department of Justice will vigorously enforce the law to ensure that employers are held accountable whenever they discriminate against U.S. students or other U.S. workers because of their citizenship.

The DOJ settlement contains no financial penalty for AllianceIT, only requiring the firm to comply with the Immigration and Nationality Act’s anti-discrimination provisions in their policies and hiring practices. DOJ attorneys said the firm will be subject to federal monitoring for two years.

The settlement with AllianceIT marks the tenth time the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division’s Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative has taken action against a company for discriminating against Americans in favor of foreign visa workers.

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions created the initiative in 2017.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.