EEOC Issues New Guidance on National Origin Discrimination

On November 19, 2025, the EEOC released new guidance affirming EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas’s commitment in advancing robust enforcement and awareness around national origin discrimination and anti-American bias.  The EEOC announced in a press release that many employers have policies and practices preferring illegal aliens, migrant workers, or non-immigrant guest workers over American workers, in violation of federal employment law.  Lucas said:  “Nothing justifies illegal national origin discrimination - whether rooted in cost of labor, customer preferences, or stereotypes.”  The document defines national origin discrimination as: “Treating employees or applicants unfavorably or favorably because they are from a particular country or part of the world, because of ethnicity or accent, or because they appear to be of a certain ethnic background.”  She gives examples of using discriminatory job advertisements, or holding U.S. workers to stricter application processes than foreign workers.  

This article is part of our January 2026 Newsletter. 

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