DOJ Settles Illegal Citizenship Requirement Dispute with Podiatry Residency Programs, AACPM

DOJ, June 20, 2016 - "The Justice Department announced today that it has reached agreements with 121 podiatry residency programs and the American Association of Colleges of Podiatric Medicine (AACPM) to resolve claims that they discriminated against work-authorized non-U.S. citizens in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

The department’s investigations found that between 2013 and 2015, the programs and AACPM created and published discriminatory postings for podiatry residents through AACPM’s online podiatry residency application and matching service. Specifically, the department determined that hundreds of job postings limited podiatry residency positions to U.S. citizens even though there was no legal authorization for the citizenship requirement. Several work-authorized non-U.S. citizens stated that they were discouraged or deterred from applying to residency programs because of the citizenship requirements, and the department concluded that two lawful permanent residents were denied consideration for positions because of unlawful citizenship requirements.

Under the settlement agreements, the programs are required to remove citizenship requirements from podiatry residency postings except where required by law, train staff involved in the advertising and hiring of podiatric residents and ensure that future residency postings are reviewed by staff trained in equal employment opportunity laws or by legal counsel. Some of the settlements also require the programs to pay a civil penalty, amounting to total civil penalties from the programs of $141,500.

The settlement with AACPM requires it to pay $65,000 in civil penalties, train its staff on the anti-discrimination provision of the INA and ensure that all participating programs receive such training before they may use AACPM’s online system to advertise residency positions. The settlement also requires AACPM to refund the fees that the charging party paid to use AACPM’s residency application and matching system."