Protecting constitutional and civil rights of immigrants is an ACLU/SC priority. Recently, the ACLU/SC has responded to large workplace raids at Microenterprise Solutions in Van Nuys, California in February 2008 and Terra Universal in Fullerton, California in June 2010 – and provided representation to workers arrested.
The ACLU is concerned about the harm to all workers – U.S. citizens, documented workers, and undocumented workers – caused by immigration worksite enforcement actions. Immigration violations are inextricably linked to labor violations, particularly in low-wage industries. Immigration raids resulting in the arrest and deportation of workers have a variety of negative effects:
- They drive down wages and labor conditions for all workers.
- They prevent workers' exercising their rights and frustrate prosecutions of abusive employers.
- They incentivize employers to employ undocumented workers in substandard conditions because the threat of immigration enforcement prevents workers from complaining.
- They undermine state and federal agency efforts to enforce labor and employment laws.
- They have a chilling effect on workers' private enforcement of their labor rights through the courts.
Past raids have violated workers' constitutional rights. Citizens and non-citizens are entitled to protections against unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment, as well as to equal protection of the laws and due process under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The manner in which ICE has historically conducted raids raises serious concerns about their legality.