New Administration Effort to Protect Immigrant Workers

The Biden Administration has recently announced that U.S. immigration authorities will no longer carry out mass arrests of unauthorized immigrants at work sites.  The thinking is that large arrest operations have "mis-allocated enforcement resources" and discouraged fearful immigrant workers from cooperating in workplace investigations.  The Administration has instructed top officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to avoid placing undocumented victims of labor exploitation in deportation proceedings and to consider granting them temporary legal status.  The idea is to encourage them to cooperate with federal law enforcement, and to focus on holding exploiting employers accountable rather than the workers.

Similar pronouncements have come from other government agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board.  Its General Counsel announced on November 8, 2021 that it will pursue interagency collaboration with DHS to support the provision of relief for witnesses and victims of unfair labor practices.

This is part of our December 2021 Newsletter.

Click here to download the newsletter PDF