The Department of Homeland Security will stop mass raids of illegal immigrant workers at job sites and instead target employers, the agency announced Tuesday.
The department plans to focus on “employers who exploit the vulnerability of undocumented workers,” Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a memorandum.
“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 said.
“These highly visible operations misallocated enforcement resources while chilling, and even serving as a tool of retaliation for, worker cooperation in workplace standards investigations.”
“Exploitative employers” also hurt law-abiding American workers and businesses because they pay illegal workers substantially less, creating an unfair labor market, Mayorkas said.
DHS officials were directed to stop all “mass worksite operations” and focus enforcement actions against “unscrupulous employers.”
The agency will adopt policies to diminish the demand for illegal workers and worsen consequences for employers who hire them.
The directive includes a policy review order aimed at making it easier for illegal workers to report employers’ abusive practices to the federal government.
