The Department of Justice announced that it reached a settlement with Ascension Health Alliance, a Missouri-based healthcare organization with more than 2,600 sites — including 146 hospitals and more than 40 senior living facilities — in 19 states and the District of Columbia. The settlement resolves the department’s claims that Ascension violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) when it discriminated against work-authorized non-US citizens because of their citizenship status by requesting more or different documents than necessary when attempting to reverify their continued work authorization.
Based on its investigation, the department determined that Ascension automatically requested that its non-US citizen employees present new documents to prove their continued work authorization, even in situations where it was not required. Ascension utilized a customized employment eligibility verification software program to electronically complete the Form I-9 and track the expiration dates of non-US citizen employee documents. The investigation found that Ascension improperly programmed the software to send automated emails requesting proof of continued work authorization to all non-US citizen employees, including US nationals, lawful permanent residents, asylees and refugees, close to the expiration date of the documents they provided when completing the Form I-9. These non-US citizen employees often presented documents that did not require reverification of employment eligibility. In some instances after sending these emails, Ascension further required non-US citizen employees to present new documents in order to continue working. In contrast, Ascension did not program the software to send emails to US citizens and therefore did not notify US citizens near the expiration of their documents.
