Justice Department Secures Agreement with Dallas-Based Management Services Company to Resolve Claims of Employment Discrimination

The Justice Department announced today that it secured a settlement agreement with Riata Corporate Group LLC, a Dallas-based company that provides management services to the energy and consumer goods sectors. The settlement resolves the department’s determination that the company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) when it discriminated against an applicant by refusing to consider her for employment because she is a naturalized United States citizen. 

“Discrimination against workers based on their citizenship or immigration status not only harms workers, but employers as well, because they miss out on qualified applicants,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Ignorance of the law is no excuse, and the Justice Department will continue to hold accountable employers that violate our nation’s federal civil rights laws.”

The Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) opened an investigation based on a worker’s complaint and determined that, in October 2023, Riata unlawfully discriminated against her even though the company had initially recruited her for employment. After learning the worker is a naturalized U.S. citizen, the company informed her that it could not hire her because of her citizenship status. The department determined that Riata rejected the worker because it misunderstood one of its government contracts to require the company to hire only U.S.-born citizens.

The INA prohibits employers from discriminating against workers based on their citizenship or immigration status, unless the discrimination is required by a law, regulation, executive order or government contract. Although Riata had a government contract that required it to hire only U.S. citizens for certain work, the contract did not authorize Riata to exclude naturalized U.S. citizens.

Under the terms of the settlement, Riata will pay lost wages to the affected worker. The agreement also requires Riata to pay a civil penalty to the United States, train its staff on the INA’s anti-discrimination provision, revise its employment policies and be subject to monitoring and reporting requirements.

IER is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA. The statute prohibits citizenship status and national origin discrimination in hiring, firing or recruitment or referral for a fee, unfair documentary practices and retaliation and intimidation.   

Find more information on how employers can avoid discrimination in recruitment and hiring on IER’s website. Learn more about IER’s work and how to get assistance through this brief video. Applicants or employees who believe they were discriminated against based on their citizenship, immigration status or national origin in hiring, firing, recruitment or during the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9 and E-Verify) or subjected to retaliation, may file a charge. The public can also call IER’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call IER’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); sign up for a live webinar or watch an on-demand presentation; email IER@usdoj.gov or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites. Sign up for email updates from IER.