The Dept. of Justice announced that Barrios Street Realty Inc. has paid around $108,000 to 12 U.S. workers as part of their settlement agreement. The settlement is an effort to resolve claims that the Louisiana based company gave preference to foreign H-2B workers and discriminated against Americans workers.

In March 2016 the DOJ determined that in 2014 the company failed to consider or rejected 73 U.S. workers who applied for sheet metal roofing and laborer positions, then applied for H-2B workers to fill these positions. The department found the company had falsely claimed it had failed to identify qualified U.S. workers.

Under the settlement, Barrios Street Realty must compensate U.S. workers, pay civil penalties and be subject to monitoring for a three-year period. In addition, Barrios Street Realty agreed to a voluntary debarment prohibiting it from seeking H-2B visa workers or other guest workers in the future.

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate employers misusing visa programs to discriminate against U.S. workers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We will vigorously prosecute claims against companies that place U.S. workers in a disfavored status.”

Read more on this story at The Washington Times.