Immigration Reform Can and Should Advance Labor Rights
New York, NY (PRWEB) July 31, 2013 -- The largest barrier to the advancement of labor rights in New York and throughout the country is the manipulation by employers of the dysfunctional immigration system to intimidate workers, documented and undocumented, who organize and fight for better working conditions and against wage theft, says Argilio Rodriguez, a labor and employment lawyer in New York City.
A recent report issued by the National Employment Law Project (“NELP”), entitled “Workers’ Rights on ICE: How Immigration Reform Can Stop Retaliation and Advance Labor Rights,” paints a shocking picture of how employers use immigration enforcement, or the threat of it, to retaliate against workers who seek to exercise their basic labor rights.
When workers demand unpaid wages, seek to report safety violations and abuse by their employers, or organize in the workplace, unscrupulous employers much too often attempt to silence such efforts and retaliate against workers by threatening to or actually abusing the immigration enforcement system.
As explained by Christine Owens, executive director of NELP, “An immigration enforcement scheme designed to prevent the hiring of undocumented workers has instead given unscrupulous employers a potent weapon to deter immigrant workers from asserting their workplace rights and retaliate against those who do so.”
“In such a climate of fear, no one is willing to stand up and blow the whistle on terrible workplace abuses. It’s a downward spiral that even drags down law-abiding employers, who are forced to compete with illegal practices,” said Rebecca Smith, an attorney with NELP and co-author of the NELP report.
As explained by Josh Eidelson in “Will Immigration Reform Protect Workers?,” “too often we see employers who’ve happily gotten rich off the labor of undocumented workers develop a sudden interest in their employees’ legal status once they start speaking up” and asserting their labor rights.
“By enacting a new immigration policy that includes a broad path to citizenship, equal remedies for all workers subjected to illegal treatment at work, a stronger firewall between immigration and labor law enforcement, and immigration protections for workers actively engaged in defending their labor rights, Congress and the White House can ensure that immigrant workers who stand up for their rights are protected,” said NELP attorney Eunice Cho, also a co-author of the report. “Immigration reform, done right, can ensure improved wages and working conditions for all workers,” said Cho.
“If Congress punts on immigration reform, or merely passes an industry wish list, it will have doubled-down on complicity in a little-discussed trend that’s driving down working conditions for U.S.-born and immigrant workers alike: For too many employers, immigration law is a tool to punish workers who try to organize,” says Eidelson.
The less leverage employers have over immigrants’ legal status, the more leverage immigrant and U.S.-born workers will have to successfully assert their labor rights.
Immigration reform must disarm employers who use immigration status to silence employees.
About Argilio Rodriguez
Argilio Rodriguez is the founder of Rodriguez Law, P.C., a New York City based law firm. He is a vocal advocate of labor and immigrant rights. Rodriguez Law seeks to level the playing field by representing victims of fraud and abusive practices, prosecuting large scale, high-impact cases, and educating our clients in the areas of business & commercial litigation, labor & employment law, criminal defense, civil rights, and class actions.
For more information about Rodriguez Law, P.C., please visit http://www.lawrodriguez.com.
Argilio Rodriguez, Rodriguez Law, P.C., http://www.lawrodriguez.com/, (212) 960-3305, [email protected]
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