https://youtu.be/jm1U24zbjLs
The Department of Homeland Security has announced a new expedited process that allows illegal migrants or “noncitizen workers” to report labor rights violations in the U.S. by allowing them to avoid deportation.
DHS said the policy of protecting illegal migrants from the threat of being deported – known as “deferred action” – will make it easier for authorities to investigate cases of shoddy labor law standards put in place by “exploitive employers.” The department said it has streamlined the process of granting deferred action when these cases arise.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “We will hold these predatory actors accountable by encouraging all workers to assert their rights, report violations they have suffered or observed, and cooperate in labor standards investigations.”
This essentially means that if any illegal migrant reports violations from employers that have illegally hired them to work, that illegal migrant will be granted ‘deferred action status’ which protects them from deportation for a two-year period
That’s because Illegal migrants who receive deferred action status typically keep this status for two years and may be eligible for employment authorization in the U.S. They may also be eligible for extended deferred action status – which means their protection from being deported will be indefinite.
Critics say that this new protection will encourage illegal migrants to continue to pour across the border, take the jobs of American citizens and exploit an intentional loophole in the system.
The DHS announcement said that officials are streamlining this process by creating one central point that workers can use to request deferred action at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. That central point deals specifically with supporting labor agency investigation and enforcement efforts.
DHS said that the effort to streamline the process of protecting noncitizen workers is in line with a 2021 memo from Mayorkas that directed DHS to make sure it “fulfills its critical role supporting the important work of labor agencies to enforce wage protections, workplace safety, labor rights, and other laws and standards.”
