November 28, 2022
On November 25, 2022, JD Howlette Law filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the Southern District of Florida on behalf of Immigration Officer Yadira Dominguez. According to the amended complaint, the management team at the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) office in Miami, Florida engaged in persistent acts of unlawful sex-based discrimination and retaliation against Ms. Dominguez for several years. Ms. Dominguez claims that, despite her years of stellar work performance and professional accolades, Defendants began targeting her following a complaint she made reporting inappropriate conduct on the part of her male supervisor.
The amended complaint alleges that Defendants forced Ms. Dominguez—a Hispanic female and mother to two minor children—to endure a nearly 4-year long hostile and toxic work environment replete with acts of racism, sexism, misogyny, intimidation, humiliation, discrimination, and retaliation. Ms. Dominguez alleges that Defendants’ unlawful conduct consisted of, among other things:
Showing up unannounced to her personal residence during the workday to “check” on her;
Manipulating her time and attendance records;
Treating her less favorably than other similarly-situated employees when it comes to employee benefits and flexible workplace policies;
Repeatedly charging her with absence without leave (“AWOL”) instead of allowing her to use accrued sick leave or annual leave;
Repeatedly denying her requests to use accrued sick leave while allowing other employees to use the same;
Scrutinizing her work product in an excessive and unjustified manner relative to the same work product submitted by other similarly situated employees; and
Revoking her telework privileges in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic without any legitimate reason for doing so.
According to Ms. Dominguez, her first-line supervisor is well-known for making disparaging and offensive remarks about females working in upper management at the office, all of whom are minorities. For instance, the supervisor has repeatedly referred to female managers as “the b-word,” negatively referred to the female Field Office Director as “Big Mama,” and has made offensive statements regarding Hispanic and/or Latino cultures.