Government settles ICE discrimination case

Agent alleging a ‘frat-house-type atmosphere’ may return to the agency.

November 16, 2012

A formal settlement will be “executed within the next several days,” AP reported Thursday, adding that conditions would be added so that Hayes could return to his job as the manager of ICE’s New York office.

The government has settled a discrimination lawsuit with a senior agent from the Homeland Security Department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the Associated Press has reported.

A lawyer for ICE Agent James T. Hayes Jr. said in a court record that the “parties have come to an agreement in principal” to have a discrimination case settled for $175,000. Hayes had filed the lawsuit in May after complaining about the “frat-house type atmosphere” created by former ICE chief of staff Suzanne Barr. He said male employees working under Barr were “humiliated,” and referenced “sexually inappropriate behavior” by some of the staff. Barr left ICE in September, according to AP.

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