Reading Room Document

Enforcement Jurisdiction of Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices

In response to a request for reconsideration by the Department of the Navy, the OLC withdrew its previous opinion that the antidiscrimination provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act authorizes the Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices to investigate and prosecute charges of employment discrimination by federal agencies. Determining that its earlier opinion relied on a faulty assumption on the impact of executive orders and did not adequately address sovereign immunity, the OLC concluded instead that the federal government is not a “person or other entity” covered by the act.

August 17, 1992