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WASHINGTON – Immigrant workers and
civil rights advocates today revealed evidence of extensive collusion
between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Signal
International, LLC, to keep workers in involuntary servitude, threaten
them with deportation, and retaliate against immigrant workers who
attempted to organize. Below is a statement from Tyler Moran, policy
director for the National Immigration Law Center:
“The testimony we heard and the evidence
that was presented today paints a damning picture of an immigration
enforcement agency that put big business over investigating serious
allegations of human trafficking and labor violations. When we ignore
the rights of immigrant workers, we risk the rights of all workers.
“The brave men who testified today
recounted tales of paying up to twenty thousand dollars for the chance
to pursue the American Dream, only to be subjected to abusive behavior
by their employer. Their allegations of abuse have sparked an
investigation, but it has not yet yielded results, and many of them face
deportation if the proper visas are not approved.
“We need policies that protect all workers
from exploitation by holding employers accountable for labor law
violations. When employers have the power and ability to threaten
immigrant workers with deportation for exercising their labor rights, it
harms all workers, including U.S. citizens whose job opportunities,
wages and working conditions are undermined. It also undercuts any
worksite enforcement system, because the economic incentive to exploit
immigrant workers far exceeds the cost of complying with immigration,
labor, or employment laws.”
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