LA Janitors & Day Laborers Host Workers Forum to Promote New Deferred Action Policy for Workers Rights!

(Los Angeles, CA) On Tuesday July 18, 2023, Los Angeles day laborers, janitors, and allies came together to host a community workers forum to discuss and promote a new federal policy to provide immigration protections in furtherance of labor investigations and workers’ rights enforcement.  Over 150 workers from across LA and OC packed the Labor Hall of SEIU United Service Workers West to hear from workers who have benefitted from the program, labor attorneys, and local and state labor agencies. 

“People across California need to know about this important new policy. Retaliation against workers has always been illegal, whether the workers are citizens or not, but this policy empowers workers who are facing abuse because of their immigration status to speak out, organize with their co-workers, and feel safe on the job,” said David Huerta, President of SEIU-USWW.

On January 13, 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quietly announced that non-citizen workers who are victims of, or witnesses to, the violation of labor rights, can now access a streamlined and expedited deferred action request process to advance their workplace rights.

“Today, day laborers joined side-by-side with janitors to discuss and promote this new policy, and to once again make a simple demand, that President Biden do for essential workers what President Obama did for dreamers,” said Pablo Alvarado, Co-Executive Director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON).  “We will continue to organize and take action across California to make sure this policy fulfills its promise.”

Since day one of the Biden Administration, the D.A.L.E. Campaign has brought together immigrant workers, day laborer centers, and labor rights organizations calling for President Biden to use his executive authority to protect immigrant workers who have proved themselves essential during the pandemic, who denounce workplace abuses, and who have sustained entire sectors and industries such as construction, restaurants, and factories, with their labor.

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