Immigrant workers demanded their $150 a day payment for installing bathroom tiles and a wall stuccoed in a California house. According to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by the California labor commissioner, the payment was supposed to come at the end of the day, but it never did.
Six days passed and a worker confronted his boss. The boss reportedly called the worker a “wetback” and threatened to call the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
“Let me share something with you, not only am I [an ex]-sheriff, my family are all in the police department,” said the boss in a text message, according to the lawsuit. “You want to come to my job & create an issue. I will handcuff you take you into custody & wait for I.C.E to come take you in for felony threats.”
Situations like these are more common every day. Immigration-related threats surged last year in California. The cases include threatened workers, wage theft, and workers demanding different documents than those required by federal immigration law.
Threats have been a way of life for the more than 2.3 million of undocumented people living in California. One reported case states that when a worker tried to get sick days after an injury, an employer said, “Sick days are for people with papers. Undocumented people don’t get sick days.”
Immigrant advocates say that undocumented workers are less likely to report work-related violations due to the political climate. “What employers seek to do by making the threat is force the employee to back off,” said Labor Commissioner, Julie Su.
According to Su, President Donald Trump’s position against immigration often cites crime despite studies showing immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than those born in the United States.
This article was inspired by Los Angeles Times // More workers say their bosses are threatening to have them deported