The
streamlined process, outlined in a new webpage, aims to
encourage immigrants to cooperate with law enforcement
investigations and shield them from possible employer
retaliation.
"Unscrupulous employers who prey on the vulnerability of
non-citizen workers harm all workers and disadvantage businesses
who play by the rules," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in
a statement. "We will hold these predatory actors accountable."
U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has won praise from labor
leaders for his support of worker rights. The latest move
received swift approval from the Service Employees International
Union (SEIU), which represents nearly 2 million janitors,
hospital workers and others.
"Today’s announcement benefits all of our members and all
workers who are fighting for better working conditions, wages
and the right to join together in unions," SEIU International
President Mary Kay Henry said in a statement.
Dozens of immigrants have received deportation relief, known as
"deferred action," in recent years under an existing process
aimed at protecting labor whistleblowers, a senior DHS official
told Reuters.
DHS will now be promoting the process more aggressively and
speeding up the time it takes to resolve a request.
"Our goal is to make it more accessible," the official said,
requesting anonymity to discuss the new effort.
The policy springs from broader principles for immigration
enforcement within workplaces outlined by Mayorkas in an October
2021 memo.
Mayorkas in the memo called for "delivering more severe
consequences to exploitative employers" and for new policies to
make workers more likely to cooperate with labor investigations.
Mayorkas also ordered the department to cease large-scale raids
on workplaces, saying they discouraged workers from cooperating
with investigations.
Such raids were a prominent part of Republican former President
Donald Trump's approach to immigration enforcement.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Mark Porter
and Marguerita Choy)
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