Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies · Major · Needs Congress

Amend the law to let employers prefer hiring American citizens

Not started

613 18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies

“Congress must amend the law so that employers can again have the freedom to make hiring Americans a priority. Despite the significant advantages that preferring citizens over (work-authorized) aliens in hiring would provide to American workers, businesses, and the country at large, such a practice has been illegal since 1986.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    8 U.S.C. 1324b, the Immigration Reform and Control Act provision that makes it unlawful to prefer a citizen over a work-authorized alien, is unamended. No bill repealing or narrowing it was found in the 119th Congress, and the Justice Department's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section — which enforces the citizenship-status discrimination ban — is still taking charges: it renewed the OMB clearance for its charge form twice in 2026.

    No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Negative search (playbook 1.6).

  • bills.ndjson title match on hire American|Hiring American|American Workers First| citizenship.*hiring|Immigration Reform and Control Act: S. 3215 (Putting American Workers First Act, referred 2025-11-19) and H.R. 9063 (Hire American Act, referred 2026-05-29). Both referred only; neither reached the floor.
  • public-laws.ndjson (104 laws): the one major immigration law of the Congress, the Secure America Act (S. 2, Public Law 119-98, 2026-06-10), is a $70 billion enforcement and border-security appropriation — confirmed against the congress.gov summaries endpoint — and does not touch 8 U.S.C. 1324b.
  • Federal Register full-text "8 U.S.C. 1324b" since 2025-01-20: 8 documents, the relevant ones being DOJ information-collection notices for the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section charge form (2026-02-23, 2026-04-27) — evidence that the prohibition is still being enforced, not repealed.
  • presidential-actions.ndjson: no presidential action on a citizenship preference in private hiring. The administration’s actions in this area restrict foreign work authorization (for example the 2026-06-05 proposed rule “Clarification of Discretionary Employment Authorization for Certain Aliens”) rather than legalizing a preference for citizens, which only Congress can do.
Action
repeal
Object
Ban on citizenship preference in hiring (Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986)
ID
1690