Are undocumented workers protected under the federal anti-discrimination laws?

Yes. The federal employment discrimination laws protect all employees in this country who work for an employer with 15 or more employees, including those who are not authorized to work.

Undocumented workers are particularly vulnerable to threats to report them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other forms of retaliation. The EEOC takes the concern of retaliation very seriously.

• It is unlawful to threaten to report, or to report a worker to ICE because a worker opposed unlawful discrimination or participated in a proceeding under the anti-discrimination laws.

• Where the employer appears to have acquired information about a worker's unauthorized status after that worker complained of discrimination, the Commission will investigate whether the information was acquired through a retaliatory investigation.