Advocates Press DHS on Workers Rights

NCLEJ joined more than 330 immigration groups and other rights organizations and signed onto a letter calling on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to release promised guidance bolstering protections for migrant workers combating workplace abuses. The action was covered in Politico’s newsletter. Read the letter here.

“We have long seen how workers’ vulnerability to deportation impedes their ability to speak out about labor violations and build power on the job, which in turn drives down wages and working conditions and undermines the enforcement of our country’s core labor standards to the detriment of all workers,” states the letter, led by the National Immigration Law Center.

Signatories asked DHS to issue guidance that would clarify the types of circumstances in which a worker could be shielded from immigration proceedings if they witness or experience labor exploitation.