Court Evidence Reveals Collusion Between ICE and Employer

February 03, 2010

Abuse Underscores Need for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Washington, DC –Yesterday, the New York Times revealed that immigration authorities allegedly colluded with Signal International, L.L.C., a Mississippi oil rig company, to punish and deport legal immigrant workers who chose to exercise their labor rights. Today, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice presented evidence obtained as part of a lawsuit against the agency, exposing that DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), advised and instructed the company on how to undermine labor laws, skirt DHS regulations related to proper termination of worker visas, “privately” deport legal workers and craft a communications and public relations strategy for Signal as media outlets began to report on the situation.

The exposure of misconduct by ICE agents towards the workers in this case is yet another chapter in a larger saga of questionable behavior by ICE employees.  Another New York Times story recently revealed documented efforts by ICE officials to cover up failings within the secretive and all too often deadly immigration detention system.

“The broken immigration system continues to reward, rather than discourage unethical behavior by bad actor employers. This story underscores the urgent need for comprehensive immigration reform.  The Federal government should be the first to defend existing labor and immigration laws as well as the civil rights of all workers in America, not the first to destroy them” said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum.  “Comprehensive immigration reform is a component of building real economic security, contributing to a shared prosperity agenda that maintains and improves wages and working conditions in the United States and in other countries. We must protect all workers’ rights, regardless of whether they were born in the United States or abroad.”

###