WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice today announced the award of nearly $725,000 in grants to 11 nonprofit groups serving communities throughout the country to conduct public education programs for workers and employers about immigration-related job discrimination.
The grants, which range from $45,000 to $85,000, are being awarded by the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) of the Civil Rights Division. Recipients will assist discrimination victims; conduct seminars for workers, employers and immigration service providers; distribute educational materials in various languages; and place advertisements in local communities through both mainstream and ethnic media.
“These grants will enable professional and community-based organizations to better educate workers and employers about their responsibilities under the anti-discrimination provisions of our immigration laws,” said Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “These respected grant recipients are well-known in their communities and will be good partners in working to prevent workplace discrimination.”
The mission of OSC is to educate both legally authorized workers and their employers about the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, enforce legal protections against citizenship and national origin discrimination, and document abuse in the workplace.
The OSC grant recipients are:
Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs - Washington, D.C. - will educate thousands of agricultural workers and employers through a network of 340 member agencies’ rural offices throughout the lower 48 states and Puerto Rico.
Catholic Charities of Dallas - Dallas, Texas - will serve workers and employers in Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
Catholic Charities of the Diocese Arlington, Hogar Hispano - Arlington, Va. - will serve immigrant workers and employers in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Centro Legal de la Raza - Oakland, Calif. - will reach Latino workers and employers throughout the five-county San Francisco Bay area.
Civil Society - St. Paul, Minn. - will serve workers and employers in the Twin Cities’ Asian, African and Hispanic communities.
Colorado Legal Services - Denver, Colo. - will educate service providers and newly-arrived Asian and Muslim immigrants in the Denver area as well as rural migrant and seasonal farm workers throughout the state.
Employers’ Association of New Jersey - Livingston, N.J. - will advise thousands of employers on the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) - Los Angeles, Calif. - will serve Latino and Asian immigrants and refugee workers and employers in the greater Los Angeles area.
Legal Assistance Foundation of Central Massachusetts - Worcester, Mass. - will educate workers, service providers and leaders among the Latino, Southeast Asian and African communities in central Massachusetts.
National Immigration Law Center (NILC) - Los Angeles, Calif. - will carry out a national program to educate immigration service providers and pro bono attorneys through regional seminars in California’s Central Valley and in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast region.
YMCA of Greater New York - New York, N.Y. - will provide education to employers, service providers and immigrant workers from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and South Asia.
For more information about protections against job discrimination under the immigration laws, call 800-255-7688, 202-616-5594 or write to:
Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices
U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20530
Email: osc.crt@usdoj.gov
Website: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/osc
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