DOJ: Arizona’s Community Colleges Shut Out Immigrant Workers, Too

It's just the latest round in a series of legal warring between the desert state and the feds.

By Julianne Hing Aug 31, 2010

Another week, another Department of Justice lawsuit against Arizona. On Monday the DOJ sued the state for the second time this summer. In this latest round, the federal government has charged that the state’s community colleges illegally forced non-citizen students to jump through more hoops to get jobs.

The federal government claims that between July 2008 and January 2010 at least 247 new non-citizen campus employees had to show more paperwork, including green cards, to be hired, a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Ten Maricopa Community Colleges that were sued have since stopped the practice, the Arizona Republic reports.

More from the Arizona Republic:

The suit says that Glendale Community College offered a part-time math teaching position to Zainul Singaporewalla in August 2008. He accepted and produced a Department of Homeland Security form proving his permanent legal status as well as a California driver’s license and Social Security card. The college then asked Singaporewalla to fill out a non-U.S. citizen employee tax data form, and to provide a permanent resident card, which staff told him was a federal requirement. When he questioned the validity of the request and was unable to produce the card, the job offer was rescinded.

Arizona is keeping the Department of Justice busy, what with their ongoing legal challenge to SB1070, and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s refusal to cooperate with the DOJ investigation of his office.