Perhaps the biggest obstacle to organizing, for workers everywhere, is the fear of retaliation. This is an even greater factor when the workers are undocumented immigrants. Not only do you fear being suspended or fired, but the idea of being deported if the employer calls immigration and being separated from your family multiplies the fear.
But a federal program that few know about can offer confidence-boosting legal protection. Arise Chicago has been supporting workers to use the program, Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement (DALE).
The fear of workplace raids remains widespread — even though the current federal administration has not conducted workplace raids targeting immigrant workers since 2021.
Memoranda issued by Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of homeland security, directed workplace immigration enforcement to go after employers, rather than workers, who break the National Immigration Act. Looking for work is not illegal, but knowingly hiring undocumented workers is.
Mayorkas went even further in 2021. Immigrants in deportation proceedings, no matter the reason, can argue that they are participating in a civil or labor case, and they can get their deportation case suspended.
But in 2022, a major change allowed undocumented workers who filed claims or complaints for legal violations in the workplace to benefit from “deferred action,” an administrative process under which those workers can obtain a temporary work permit and a legal Social Security number.
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La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Jorge Mújica
