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LOS ANGELES —
The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) is disappointed at the
so-called new directive on worksite enforcement issued by Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today and announced
via a DHS press release. The directive itself has not been made
public at this time.
The press
release announces a new emphasis on criminal prosecutions of employers
and expanding coverage of humanitarian guidelines. But at the same
time, DHS reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
will continue to detain undocumented workers in workplace raids.
"Americans
had been awaiting meaningful change under the Obama administration, but
all we've gotten seems to be more of the same type of ineffective and
costly immigration enforcement that we saw with the mass ICE raids under
the Bush administration," stated Marielena Hincapié, executive director
of NILC. "We have seen the terrorizing effect ICE raids have had
on families who have been ripped apart, children who have been
abandoned, workers who have courageously come forward to report labor
violations only to be detained, and on local economies which have been
severely impacted. It is simply unacceptable that these 'new'
guidelines are the administration's response to the millions of people
demanding rational and humane immigration policies," said Hincapié.
The directive
purportedly shifts the focus toward employers engaged in criminal
activity. The press release does not even mention access to legal
protections for workers who are victims of employer misconduct, such as
access to visas for victims of human trafficking or other crimes, or as
material witnesses to crimes. "We support an enforcement scheme
that goes after employers who are flaunting the nation's immigration and
criminal laws as well as undercutting businesses that do play by the
rules. But the directive does not address the root causes of why
employers recruit, hire, and exploit undocumented workers to begin
with," said Nora Preciado, employment policy attorney with NILC.
"This is a missed opportunity by the administration to focus on
employers engaged in egregious labor violations and to see workers as
essential to these prosecutions. Instead immigrant workers across
the nation will be pushed deeper into the shadows of our economy," added
Preciado.
The DHS press
release states the agency plans to expand the existing humanitarian
guidelines to worksite raids involving more than 25 undocumented
workers. While this reflects a change from the previous threshold
of 150, NILC's experience in supporting local groups in response to ICE
raids has shown us that the humanitarian guidelines are fraught with
more serious problems that should have been addressed. The
humanitarian guidelines need to be improved so they are uniformly
followed by local ICE agents and guarantee that workers are not detained
when alternatives to detention are available, obtain prompt access to
counsel, and limit the transfer of detained immigrants away from their
homes and families.
"This new
guidance sends a strong message to the millions of Latinos who voted for
change when they elected President Obama that this administration is not
serious about change and protecting the rights of workers. The
stakes are even greater now for a broad and just immigration reform that
will allow immigrant workers to come out of the shadows to continue
contributing to the nation's economy and participating fully in their
communities," concluded Hincapié.
The DHS press
release is available
here.
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