One of the nation’s top schools of criminal justice is now in trouble with the criminal justice system.
On Friday, the Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit accusing John Jay College of Criminal Justice of discrimination.
The school, located in New York City, regularly required non-U.S. citizens to prove their eligibility to work, while not requiring U.S. citizens to do so in the same way, according to the lawsuit.
“Every individual who is authorized to work in this country has the right to know they will be free from discrimination as they look for a job, and that they will be on the same playing field as every other applicant or worker,” the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Thomas E. Perez, said in a statement.
According to the lawsuit, John Jay College suspended an employee several times between 2004 and 2008 after the school “insisted she produce” her Green Card as well as other “employment authorization documents,” such as her Social Security card and driver’s license.
But the Green Card was not necessary because “the documents she had already produced were legally sufficient for a showing of employment eligibility,” according to the Justice Department.
The woman, who worked as a part-time computer lab assistant at the school, was one of at least 103 non-U.S. citizens who were similarly asked to produce such documents during that time, the lawsuit said.
The school did not require U.S. citizens to provide similar documents proving their work eligibility, thus imposing “different and greater requirements on non-U.S. citizens,” according to the Justice Department.
John Jay College “knowingly and intentionally committed document abuse discrimination” against non-U.S. citizens, the lawsuit said, calling it an “unfair immigration-related employment practice.”
The part-time computer lab assistant, Shoulan Chang of Brooklyn, N.Y., filed a complaint with the Justice Department in July 2008.
“The employer refused to accept my social security card (unrestricted) and driver livense,” she wrote in the complaint. “The employer demanded he see a green card or employment authorization card issued by immigration, and suspended me from the work.”
The school, part of the City University of New York’s public school system, calls itself a “world-renowned center and clearinghouse for research in criminal justice.”
“The breadth and diversity of scholarship at the College reflect our continuing commitment to innovative analyses, interdisciplinary approaches and global perspectives,” the school’s web site says. “[The school] serves the community by developing graduates who have the intellectual acuity, moral commitment and professional competence to confront the challenges of crime, justice and public safety in a free society.”
A spokeswoman for John Jay College told Fox News she was unaware of the lawsuit and could not comment.