President Biden ended Mass Immigration Arrests at Work-sites

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On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced US immigration authorities will no longer carry out mass arrests of unauthorized immigrants at work sites. The law enforcement efforts should focus on holding exploitative employers accountable. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a memo that the Department should prioritize combating illegal acts committed by unscrupulous employers. They often pay workers substandard wages and subject them to unsafe working conditions and facilitate human trafficking and child exploitation. Mayorkas said, “Our worksite enforcement efforts can have a significant impact on the well-being of individuals and the fairness of the labor market. Our accomplishments in this area make clear that we can maximize the impact of our efforts by focusing on unscrupulous employers who exploit the vulnerability of undocumented workers”.

The announcement is a termination from the immigration arrest policies of the Trump administration, which resumed large worksite roundups. The ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) carried out the largest single-state immigration enforcement operation in US history in summer 2019. The authorities arrested at least 700 undocumented food processing plant workers in Mississippi. Mayorkas said the massive arrest operations misallocated enforcement resources and discouraged fearful immigrant workers from cooperating in workplace investigations. Tuesday’s memo is also part of the Biden administration’s efforts to narrow who can be detained and deported by ICE. Deportation agents have already been directed to refrain from arresting pregnant or nursing women, victims of serious crimes, and undocumented immigrants who don’t have serious criminal records. Mayorkas also instructed top DHS officials to prevent placing undocumented victims of labor exploitation in deportation proceedings and to consider granting them temporary legal status.

Mayorkas argued that such actions will encourage them to cooperate with federal law enforcement. The secretary also charged the department with making sure E-Verify is not misused to retaliate against workers who report workplace abuse. Point to be noted that E-Verify is an online government program that allows employers to check the status of would-be employees. Mayorkas said the policy shift could usher in a fairer labor market by targeting employers. It would benefit businesses competing with employers that are exploiting immigrant workers, including by paying them less. The advocates for immigrants welcomed the discontinuation of mass workplace immigration sweeps. However, the newer policy is likely to garner condemnation from congressional Republicans. Migrants who arrived at the US-Mexico border after November 2020 are a priority for arrest and deportation under the latest guidelines.