Labor, rights groups praise Biden policy boosting migrant worker protections

Migrant workers and advocates on Friday applauded a Biden administration policy to help protect noncitizen employees who are victims or witnesses of labor rights violations “from threats of immigration-related retaliation from the exploitive employers.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that noncitizens will be able to submit requests for temporary relief from deportation or other immigration actions to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) “through a central intake point established specifically to support labor agency investigative and enforcement efforts.”

DHS said that “for deferred action requests from noncitizens who are in removal proceedings or have a final order of removal, upon reviewing the submission for completeness, USCIS will forward such requests to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to make a final determination on a case-by-case basis.”

Organizations from the Blue Ribbon Commission on Immigrant Work praised the policy, with Haydi Torres, an organizer with Unidad Latina en Acción NJ, declaring that “this is a huge victory for undocumented workers and the labor movement.”

“Our fight goes beyond our immigration status, it is a fight for all the workers who sustain the economy of this country,” Torres said. “Without our hands there is no work.”

Yale Law School professor James Bhandary-Alexander, an attorney with Unidad Latina en Acción CT, said that “the threat of deportation is like a gun in the boss’s hand, pointed at workers and their rights.”

Workers’ rights leaders such as Victor Agreda agreed, saying that “the bosses always act like they have more power than the workers.”

While “my co-workers and I overcame our fear to denounce labor abuses,” Agreda said, “deferred action is labor justice for all workers who remain silent in the face of abuse.”

While celebrating the administration’s move, Unidad Latina en Acción CT director John Jairo Lugo stressed that “words without actions are not enough. This policy will change lives, but only if our local and national leaders stand with workers loud and clear, to make this policy a reality.”

National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) co-executive director Nadia Marin-Molina vowed that “we are going to fight like hell in the days and weeks ahead to ensure that every single worker who qualifies can get the benefit of this new policy.”

Farmworker Justice, which also applauded the announcement, pointed out that the policy “will have a particularly powerful impact among farmworkers, more than half of whom are either undocumented or on precarious H-2A work visas, and their families.”

Originally published at Commondreams.org.