Wouldn’t you think that people working for a city’s sheriff’s department should be U.S. citizens?
Apparently President Obama’s Justice Department thinks being a citizen should not be a prerequisite for the job; the DOJ is fining the Denver Sheriff Department $10,000 for making U.S. citizenship a requirement for applicants.
The DOJ stated:
The Justice Department’s investigation found that from approximately Jan. 1, 2015, until approximately March 23, 2016, the Denver Sheriff Department discriminated based on citizenship status by requiring applicants for deputy sheriff positions to be U.S. citizens and publishing job postings with U.S. citizenship requirements, in violation of the INA. The INA’s anti-discrimination provision prohibits employers from limiting jobs to U.S. citizens except where the employer is required to do so by law, regulation, executive order or government contract. The Denver Sheriff Department was not subject to one of the INA’s exceptions.
Denver sheriff’s spokesman Simon Crittle told The Denver Post, “The Denver Sheriff Department maintains its commitment to treat all people with dignity and respect, and is proud to have one of the most diverse workplaces in Colorado. While we didn’t commit this violation intentionally, we accept responsibility and are taking steps to clarify policy and amend language in hiring documents.”
The Post reported:
The settlement with the justice department also requires the sheriff’s department to train its human resources staff on anti-discrimination provisions of federal immigration laws and reviews its procedures to make sure they are in line with federal law, the justice department said. The department began hiring 200 deputies as part of its ongoing reform effort. The department needed a larger staff to ease deputy fatigue and reduce millions it was a spending in overtime. The move also was expected to give sergeants more time to supervise deputies rather than filling gaps in schedules inside the city’s two jails.