On November 19, 2025, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released new and updated educational materials reaffirming EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas’ previously expressed commitment to advancing enforcement and awareness of “national origin discrimination and Anti-American bias.” The agency issued a new one-page technical assistance document, “Discrimination Against American Workers Is Against The Law,” and updated its national origin discrimination landing page.
The technical assistance document states that unlawful national origin discrimination “involves treating workers (applicants or employees) unfavorably or favorably because they are from a particular country or part of the world” and “can include preferring foreign workers, including workers with a particular visa status, over American workers.” The guidance explains that such discrimination can occur in job advertisements and through disparate treatment, harassment, and retaliation. It provides several examples of unlawful practices, such as job advertisements expressing preferences for applicants from a particular country or with a particular visa status and terminating American workers who are on the “bench” between job assignments at a higher rate than visa guest workers.
The guidance also emphasizes that the following “common business reasons” that do not justify national origin discrimination: customer or client preference; lower cost of labor; and beliefs that workers from one or more national origin groups are “more productive” or possess a better work ethic than another national origin group. Employers should review their job postings, recruitment practices, screening and selection procedures, pay practices, layoff and promotion policies, and other employment policies and practices to ensure that they do not favor workers of any particular national origin or visa status over others, and train managers and HR staff as needed.