In a recent settlement with the US Department of Justice, California-based tech recruiter Epik Solutions has agreed to pay nearly $72,000 in civil penalties and overhaul its hiring policies after being found to have unlawfully favored foreign workers holding H-1B visas over US applicants.
The enforcement action stems from a government probe revealing that numerous job postings by the company excluded American workers in violation of federal anti-discrimination provisions under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
The agreement marks the first settlement under the Justice Department’s revived Protecting US Workers Initiative, aimed at countering discriminatory hiring practices that prioritize temporary visa holders over US citizens and lawful residents.
According to the settlement, Epik Solutions will undertake substantial compliance measures, including mandatory staff training, internal policy revisions, and a commitment to stop publishing job ads that restrict eligibility based on citizenship status, unless legally justified.
The company has neither admitted liability nor accepted the legal conclusions in the government’s findings.
The case signals a renewed federal emphasis on enforcing employment protections for domestic workers in the tech and recruiting sectors. Although Epik Solutions cooperated with the investigation, the firm must now implement oversight mechanisms to ensure that all recruitment and employment eligibility processes align with federal non-discrimination mandates.
Revived enforcement tool
The Protecting US Workers Initiative was first introduced in early 2017 by the Department of Justice’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, shortly after the start of the first Trump administration.
Its core purpose was to identify and address instances where employers discriminated against American workers in favor of temporary foreign visa holders, particularly under the H-1B, H-2A, and H-2B programs. The initiative framed this type of discrimination not only as a civil rights concern but also as a distortion of the US labor market.
By late 2017, the DOJ had formalized partnerships with other federal agencies, including the Department of State, USCIS, and the Department of Labor. These interagency agreements allowed for the exchange of data on employers suspected of engaging in unlawful hiring practices or visa fraud.
The government pursued a series of high-profile settlements across industries, from agriculture to construction, signaling a broad interpretation of the initiative’s reach. However, under the Biden administration, public enforcement activity under the initiative largely paused.
The program has now been formally restarted, and the first case marking a return to the initiative’s original focus on visa-related discrimination in the private sector.
DOJ enforcement trends
During the first Trump administration, the Department of Justice’s Protecting US Workers Initiative became a prominent vehicle for enforcing provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act against employers accused of discriminating against US citizens.
The initiative resulted in a series of high-profile settlements across sectors. In one such case, El Expreso Bus Company in Texas agreed to pay nearly $230,000 after allegations it had prioritized H-2B visa holders over American drivers. Though the company denied wrongdoing, it accepted obligations to revise hiring policies and expand domestic recruitment efforts.
Agricultural employers were also frequent targets. Florida’s Sam Williamson Farms settled for $145,000 after allegedly displacing domestic strawberry pickers in favor of H-2A workers. The DOJ found that the farm failed to rehire available US workers for the next season and instead contracted foreign labor.
Similarly, Palmetto Beach Hospitality in South Carolina was fined $77,000 for favoring temporary foreign workers for housekeeping roles, while also committing to reform its recruitment policies and actively respond to American applicants before turning to visa labor.
The initiative extended beyond manual labor sectors. In Virginia, the CFA Institute agreed to pay $321,000 to resolve allegations that it excluded qualified US citizens from grading assignments in favor of H-1B holders. And in Maryland, Hallaton Inc., a construction firm, settled for $120,000 after hiring dozens of H-2B workers while overlooking interested American candidates.
These cases, all settled between 2017 and 2020, reflect a broader enforcement philosophy of that administration: one that sought to reassert the primacy of American labor in both low-wage and professional hiring markets.
Immigration enforcement returns to center stage
The Department of Justice’s recent settlement with Epik Solutions fits squarely within a broader realignment of DOJ enforcement priorities under the current Trump administration.
As the agency shifts its attention away from traditional white-collar prosecutions and narrows the scope of corporate monitorships, immigration enforcement and anti-discrimination provisions under the Immigration and Nationality Act are once again being brought to the fore.
According to DOJ leadership, immigration-related violations by corporations are now a top-tier enforcement target, alongside cartel activity, trade fraud, and transnational organized crime.
This pivot also echoes the administration’s broader strategy of reassigning resources from financial regulation to enforcement efforts tied more directly to national security and labor market protection.
In this context, the Epik case is less an isolated action than a signal: the DOJ is renewing its effort to prosecute companies that sideline American workers through visa misuse. It also dovetails with a regulatory trend emphasizing corporate self-reporting and remediation in other contexts, while remaining uncompromising on discriminatory hiring practices.
For compliance officers, the message is unambiguous: as the DOJ reallocates investigative capacity toward visa misuse and citizenship-based discrimination, organizations must treat hiring practices with the same rigor typically reserved for financial crime or anti-bribery compliance.
