Worker Policy Watch
Your source for accurate and reliable information on how federal policies are shaping workers’ rights—and what’s at stake for working people nationwide under the Trump administration.
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IRS Agrees to Collaborate with Immigration Enforcement
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reached an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to share sensitive taxpayer data in order to help find immigrants the agency is seeking to deport. Under the terms of the deal, ICE officials can request information from the IRS about individuals who have been ordered to leave the U.S. or who are otherwise under investigation. Taxpayer data is highly protected under federal law, and many officials have warned that the agreement could be illegal.
Impact:
Millions of undocumented workers pay billions in taxes each year, supporting critical programs like Social Security. For years, the IRS has encouraged those workers to submit tax returns based on the promise of keeping their data separate from immigration enforcement. This action will increase fear in immigrant communities, and will likely drive workers to stop filing their taxes, undermining federal programs, and seek jobs with unscrupulous employers who pay under the table--making themselves even more vulnerable to exploitation on the job and driving down standards for all workers.
IRS Fires 25 Percent of Its Workforce and Eliminates Civil Rights Office
The Internal Revenue Service began layoffs of some 20,000 workers. The agency’s civil rights office, which protects taxpayers from discrimination, will be eliminated.
Impact:
The cuts come during the agency’s busiest season, with the annual tax filing deadline of April 15 approaching. Experts have raised concerns that the government could see a sharp drop in revenue as individuals and businesses see opportunities to take advantage of a diminished IRS to cheat on their taxes. The IRS also plays a critical role in fighting poverty for working people by administering programs like the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Thousands of Venezuelan Migrant Workers Can Continue to Work and Retain Removal Protections
A federal judge blocks the Trump administration from stripping Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from 350,000 Venezuelan migrant workers, allowing them to retain work authorization and removal protections for now.
Impact:
The postponement of the TPS cancellation means that protected migrant workers in food service, home healthcare, education, and other industries can legally stay on the job for the time being. The judge’s ruling comes after the Trump administration had cancelled an extension placed under the Biden administration of TPS for Venezuelans. TPS will continue for now until April 2026 for both work authorization and removal protections.
ICE Detains a Washington State Farmworker Union Leader
Alfredo Juarez Zeferino, a DACA applicant who had no criminal record, was taken into custody on March 25th.
Impact:
This is clearly an attempt to chill union organizing activities among immigrant workers.
OFCCP Director to Weaponize Agency Against Civil Rights
The new Trump-appointed director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), Catherine Eschbach, told employees that the agency must “conduct an autopsy” of its actions and regulations. Eschbach wrote that the agency has until late April to verify that companies are no longer utilizing affirmative action plans, and will advise Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer on ways to use the agency’s investigative authority to intimidate corporations, nonprofits, foundations, associations, and universities that practice diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Impact:
Until Trump’s rescission of Executive Order 11246, OFCCP was dedicated to ensuring equal opportunity in workplaces at companies and other institutions that contract with the federal government. The Trump administration now seeks to both rescind most of the agency’s mission and weaponize the agency against entities that attempt to continue to protect civil rights and utilize best practices to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Trump Administration guts the Civil Rights and Immigration Liaison Offices within the Department of Homeland Security
The Trump Administration fired virtually everyone from the offices within DHS that work to ensure that our nation's immigration policies are carried out in a manner that protects the civil rights of immigrants.
Impact:
Essentially, there is now no office within DHS through which immigrants can report any violations of their civil rights, giving the Trump administration even more free rein to carry out detention and removal proceedings in a cruel and illegal fashion.
Department of Justice Withdraws 11 Pieces of Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Compliance Guidance
Among the guidance that's been withdrawn is the type of access employers must give employees to know their rights under the ADA.
Impact:
This is yet another part of the Trump Administration's attack on the hard-won civil rights that workers should enjoy in this country.
The NLRB Drops a Case Against an Immigrant Detention Center which Allegedly Retaliated Against Detainees’ Concerted Activities
Detainees were working full time for as little as $1 per day and when they engaged in labor strikes, they were punished, including being sent to solitary confinement.
Impact:
With the NLRB dropping the case that was brought by the former General Counsel, it is clear that they will not protect immigrant detainees against abuse and unjust working conditions while they are in detention centers.
The Department of Justice and the EEOC Issue “Warning” Against “Illegal” Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Practices
This is yet another attempt by the administration to scare employers into giving up their perfectly legal diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, all of which are designed to help ensure compliance with the civil rights laws.
Impact:
As more employers become scared of the Administration's witch-hunts, they could scrap their best efforts to comply with the civil rights laws and make it harder for women, people of color, and other disadvantaged groups to fully and fairly compete for employment for which they are qualified.
Trump Removes a Directive Mandating that Federal Contractors Cannot Have Segregated Facilities for Their Employees
This has been a directive for federal contractors since the 1960s. Its removal continues the administration's attack on civil rights.
Impact:
Though other federal and state laws still prohibit such segregation, the administration is continuing to use it's platform to encourage the roll-back of civil rights.