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ITALIAN AMERICAN INS EMPLOYEES ACCUSE AGENCY OF BIAS
The National Italian American Foundation, which describes itself as an "umbrella organization" for the 25 million Americans of Italian heritage, says that it has yet to receive a response to its letter of August 3, 1998 to the INS, charging it with "systemic and institutional discrimination." In replies to pervious letters from the group, the Service said the complaints about ethnic bias all stemmed from the same incident and not part of a pattern of discrimination.
The letter resulted from an investigation following several complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, particularly complaints from two senior INS officials of Italian descent. According to the letter, written by former Democratic Congressman from New Jersey, Frank Guarini, there is evidence of regular use of ethnic slurs against subordinate Italian American employees, and of a "hit-list" targeting all high level INS officials of Italian American descent for adverse personnel action.
The INS maintains there is no problem with ethnic bias against Italian Americans, but according to District Director Benedict Ferro, one of the officials who sought help from the EEOC, he did so because the INS did not act to end the discriminatory atmosphere.