“Go Back to Mexico” Comments Evidence of National Origin Discrimination

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals—the circuit having jurisdiction over Utah—held on March 19, 2009, in a case entitled Avila v. Jostens, Inc., that a supervisor’s statement to an employee that he “should get out of the country if he couldn’t speak English” at approximately the time the employee was fired was “circumstantial evidence of discriminatory animus.” Those remarks together with the supervisor’s apparent campaign to leave a trail of disciplinary measures was sufficient to state a claim of national origin discrimination and retaliation after the employee complained. This was especially true after the same supervisor had given the employee an “exceptional” ranking on his annual job evaluation.