Instacart to Pay $5 Million in Settlement With Justice Department and EEOC: Green Card Job Postings Must Accept Online Applications
The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced in Washington on October 20 that they have reached a $5 million settlement with the grocery delivery platform Instacart. Under the settlement, Instacart will pay up to $4 million to affected U.S. applicants and $1 million in civil penalties.
The case concerns recruitment under the permanent labor certification (PERM) process, the step an employer must complete before sponsoring a foreign employee for a green card: the employer must first recruit U.S. workers for the job and show that no qualified U.S. worker is available before it can seek labor certification for the foreign employee. The two agencies alleged that, in its PERM recruitment, Instacart did not allow U.S. applicants to apply for its advertised positions in the normal way, in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which prohibits discrimination against U.S. workers based on citizenship status. The Justice Department’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER), part of the Civil Rights Division, enforces the INA’s anti-discrimination provision, while the EEOC enforces federal laws barring employment discrimination, including on the basis of national origin.
Beyond the payments, the settlement requires Instacart to change its practices: the company must accept online applications for the jobs it advertises in the PERM process, so that U.S. workers can apply for green card-related postings the same way they apply for other openings. The agencies said the settlement resolves their allegations that Instacart discriminated against U.S. workers in its green card hiring, and that affected U.S. applicants will be paid from the settlement fund.
The Justice Department said the agreement is the latest result of its Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative, relaunched in 2025 to enforce the INA’s prohibition on citizenship-status discrimination against companies that illegally discriminate against U.S. workers in favor of workers on temporary visas. As of last week, the initiative had produced 14 settlements; under them, the department obtains civil penalties for each violation, secures back pay for harmed workers where warranted, and requires employers to train relevant staff and recruiters and to stop restricting consideration for job opportunities based on citizenship status without a lawful reason.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于华盛顿的美国司法部总部 Robert F. Kennedy 大楼，宣布和解的司法部民权司在此办公。照片：Gunnar Klack 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经维基共享资源／The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, headquarters of the Justice Department, whose Civil Rights Division reached the settlement together with the EEOC. Photo: Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
