The Justice Department reached an 11th-hour settlement with a Minnesota-based restaurant chain for a $95,000 civil penalty in addition to mandatory employment training after the company required “more documents than necessary” to verify workers’ permits.
According to the 7-page settlement, Brick & Bourbon, a restaurant group with three locations in Minnesota, will be required to post forms outlining employees’ rights in both English and Spanish and undergo additional reviews into employment practices.
“It is unlawful for employers to impose additional or unnecessary requirements on employees because of their citizenship status when checking their permission to work,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a press release Monday. “Discriminatory treatment during any step of the employment process harms workers who are lawfully participating in our economy and can deprive employers of their talents.”
The Justice Department’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section notified the restaurants of the federal investigation in February 2023.
“The investigation found that Respondent required lawful permanent residents, but not similarly-situated U.S. citizens, to present more or different documents than required by law during the employment eligibility verification process,” the settlement read. An example includes “requiring lawful permanent residents to present a Social Security card” after applicants “already presented a valid Permanent Resident Card.”
The settlement was reached just one week before President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in with a new administration eager to reform the Justice Department. Trump’s pick to lead the department, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and Thursday.
“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans,” Trump said when he announced her nomination. “Not anymore. Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting crime, and Making America Safe Again.”
President Joe Biden’s Justice Department spent four years under Attorney General Merrick Garland engaged in political prosecutions against Trump and his supporters, including people who protested at school board meetings, abortion clinics, and the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray warned the new administration of cyberthreats from China in an exit interview with “60 Minutes” on CBS.
“China’s cyber program is by far and away the world’s largest — bigger than that of every major nation combined and has stolen more of Americans’ personal and corporate data than that of every nation, big or small, combined,” Wray said.
But even beyond the cyber theft. There’s another part of the Chinese cyber threat that I think has not gotten the attention publicly that it I think desperately deserves. And that is Chinese government’s pre-positioning on American civilian critical infrastructure. To lie in wait on those networks to be in a position to wreak havoc and can inflict real-world harm at a time and place of their choosing.
Wray announced in December he would step down from his role as FBI chief after Trump nominated former Pentagon chief of staff Kash Patel to the top job.
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