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.
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.
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.
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.
Trump signs and Executive Order mandating English as the official language of the United States
This order rescinded a mandate put in place by President Clinton that federal agencies and other entities who receive federal funding make their services accessible to non-English speakers.
Impact:
Federal agencies and entities that receive federal funding now have discretion about whether or not they provide assistance and services in languages other than English. This could lead to people with limited English proficiency not being aware of their rights, or not being adequately assisted in receiving the rights and benefits to which they are legally entitled. It is yet another brute-force roll-back of the civil rights workers have fought so hard to attain.
Trump administration revokes Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for over 500,000 Haitian people
Without TPS, these workers will lose their authorization to live and work in the United States and could be deported beginning in August.
Impact:
Haitian workers were granted TPS because of the dangerous conditions in Haiti, where over 5600 people were killed last year and over one million are homeless because of gang violence. Gangs reportedly control over 85% of Haiti's capital and people sent back will be exposed to life-threatening danger, homelessness, and a lack of jobs.
The Trump administration stops processing visas for immigrants who came to the United States lawfully from Latin American countries and Ukraine
The people seeking these visas were granted status to apply for them because of humanitarian reasons related to the conditions in their countries.
Impact:
While the exact number of impacted people is unknown, estimates are that thousands of workers who came to this country legally could lose their status and ability to live and work in the United States.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance on Protections for Immigrant Workers
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. This rescinded memo (GC 22-01) instructed NLRB officials to pursue every avenue available to them in cases where the rights of undocumented workers to organize are violated, so that employers faced penalties for breaking the law and workers could get the relief to which they are entitled under the law. Union organizing is a critical tool for undocumented workers to fight back against wage theft, unsafe workplaces, and other forms of exploitation on the job.
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. With the rescission of this memo by Acting General Counsel William Cowen, undocumented workers will be more vulnerable to exploitation and retaliation by unscrupulous employers. And all workers will be worse off, because exploitation of any group of workers drives down standards for all workers.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance Making Board Operations More Effective
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. These rescinded memos included directives that dealt with improving transparency and efficiency (GC 25-03), tracking employer compliance with Board orders (GC 23-07), fast-tracking important or complex cases to the full Board for resolution (GC 21-04, GC 23-04), administering mail ballots for union elections (GC 21-01), and setting appropriate timelines for resolving cases (GC 22-05). Acting General Counsel William Cowen also rescinded memos related to cooperation with other workplace agencies (GC 22-03) and the handling of requests for case data from other agencies (GC 23-03).
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. These rescinded memos included common sense reforms, like removing arbitrary deadlines and instead setting timelines for case resolution based on the case’s complexity, allowing for higher quality work. The policies dealing with interagency cooperation were also critical to supporting the NLRB’s collaboration with federal agencies to protect undocumented workers who faced unfair labor practices from immigration enforcement, so that workers could come forward and enforce their rights without fear of deportation.