DHS secretary: No more ICE raids of workplaces

Raids by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE) at workplaces where undocumented immigrants are employed will no longer be allowed, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated in a memorandum.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted raids on several poultry plants on August 7, 2019, in Mississippi. (ICE)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted raids on several poultry plants on August 7, 2019, in Mississippi. (ICE)

Raids by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE) at workplaces where undocumented immigrants are employed will no longer be allowed, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated in a memorandum.

The largest such raid to happen in the United States occurred during the previous presidential administration, when on August 7, 2019, seven agrifood processing plants in Mississippi were raided, resulting in the detainment of 680 alleged illegal immigrant workers. Among those facilities raided were three Peco Foods poultry plants and one Koch Foods poultry plant.

Mayorkas, however, feels that such raids are not productive when it comes to solving the root of the problem with the employment of illegal immigrants.

“The deployment of mass worksite operations, sometimes resulting in the simultaneous arrest of hundreds of workers, was not focused on the most pernicious aspect of our country’s unauthorized employment challenge: exploitative employers,” Mayorkas wrote. “These highly visible operations misallocated enforcement resources while chilling, and even serving as a tool of retaliation for, worker cooperation in workplace standards investigations. Moreover, such operations are inconsistent with the departments September 30, 2021 Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law and the individualized assessment they require.”

In the same memorandum, Mayorkas called for the review of HHS policies to facilitate a department-wide strategy in line with these principles:

  1. Identify any existing and potential policies that have an impact on the department’s role in supporting the enforcement of employment and labor standards.
  2. Develop agency plans to alleviate or mitigate the fear that victims of, and witnesses to, labor trafficking and exploitation may have regarding their cooperation with law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of unscrupulous employers.
  3. Identify the policies and measures that are in place to ensure that e-Verify is not manipulated to suppress unauthorized workers from, or to punish unauthorized workers for, reporting unlawful labor practices such as sub-standard wages, unsafe working conditions and other forms of worker exploitation.
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