Leopolda Zumaya was working as an apple picker in Pennsylvania when he fell from a tree, breaking his leg and leaving him with permanent nerve damage and a chronic pain disorder. A treating physician said Mr. Zumaya's injuries were among the worst he'd seen, but when his boss learned Mr. Zumaya could not return to work, he ejected Mr. Zumaya from the farm labor camp where he lived and refused to pay benefits. More than eight years later, Mr. Zumaya continues to suffer chronic pain and struggles to walk.
Every day in the United States, workers in low-wage jobs risk their health and their lives providing basic services in hazardous conditions, with little protection for themselves or their families when they are injured on the job. A recent found that "employers are paying the lowest rates for workers' comp insurance since the 1970s" with cutbacks in benefits "so drastic in some places that they virtually guarantee injured workers will plummet into poverty."
For undocumented workers like Mr. Zumaya, who comprise over five percent of the U.S. workforce, requesting compensation and medical care after a work injury is often futile and can result in retaliation. Workers who have requested their wages, reported labor abuses, sought compensation for work injuries, or reported sexual harassment by employers have been arrested and deported by U.S. immigration officers when employers retaliate. While immigration reform and President Obama's hang in the balance, millions of undocumented workers remain in a vulnerable and exploited position, doing some of the most dangerous work in the country but with limited safeguards or recourse when injured.
Under a 2011 Department of Homeland Security on immigration enforcement, undocumented workers qualify for prosecutorial discretion. That means they shouldn't be pursued for arrest and deportation if they are victims of workplace abuse or if they are attempting to enforce their labor rights. Nonetheless, some employers continue to threaten undocumented workers and report them to immigration authorities when they pursue their rights.
And despite the DHS memo, over the past several years, legal protections for undocumented workers have been declining.
In 2002, in Hoffman Plastic Compounds v. NLRB, the U.S. Supreme Court held that an undocumented worker, illegally fired for participating in protected union activities, could not recover back pay – i.e., the wages they would have earned if they had not been fired. While some states, like , do recognize greater labor rights for undocumented workers, several others were emboldened by the Hoffman decision to limit or even eliminate core workplace protections, like compensation for injuries. The expansion of these laws has further jeopardized the welfare of a growing underclass of exploited workers, hired for hazardous, low-wage jobs but with limited ability to protest and report abuses and to see recompense when those abuses occur.
In response to this downward spiral, the ACLU, the National Employment Law Project, and the University of Pennsylvania's Transnational Legal Clinic filed a petition in 2006 with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, challenging the U.S. government's failure to protect our clients – and millions like them – from exploitation and discrimination in the workplace. Human rights law recognizes the rights of all workers, regardless of their legal status, to be treated humanely and justly, without discrimination.
On March 16 – almost eight years later – our clients are finally getting a hearing before the commission and a chance to vindicate their human right to fair treatment. Their stories, like those of millions of other undocumented workers in the United States, remind us of what's at stake for workers who support our economy and undertake some of our most dangerous jobs but are laboring in the shadows.
And while we wait for the promised immigration reform and stronger worker protections, we call upon the U.S. government to ensure that undocumented workers are not deported for asserting rights.
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News & CommentaryDec 2024
Human Rights
Failed War on Drugs Policies Won't Stop the Overdose Crisis, But Harm Reduction Can Save LivesFailed War on Drugs Policies Won't Stop the Overdose Crisis, But Harm Reduction Can Save Lives
Research shows extensive benefits from syringe exchange and other harm reduction programs. But misguided efforts to ban common sense care continue. -
News & CommentaryDec 2024
Racial Justice
Human Rights
Why the Fight for Racial Justice is a Human Rights IssueWhy the Fight for Racial Justice is a Human Rights Issue
On International Human Rights Day, the ACLU is advocating for a long-sought after reparatory justice to end the continued abuses against Black and brown communities. -
Press ReleaseOct 2024
Human Rights
Free Speech
Universities Should Protect Students’ Right to Protest, End Crackdown on Peaceful ProtestsUniversities Should Protect Students’ Right to Protest, End Crackdown on Peaceful Protests
WASHINGTON – College and university presidents across the U.S. need to respect and protect the right to protest in support of Palestinian rights the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch said today in an open letter. For months the organizations have raised concerns about the potential use of unlawful force when university administrators call in law enforcement officers to break up demonstrations on campus. This new letter comes after reports of heavy-handed and excessive force by some campus police and local law enforcement against peaceful protests and encampments across the country. The groups provide recommendations for colleges and universities to ensure they protect the right to protest on their campuses. The organizations also urge university administrations to refrain from taking any further measures to suppress student protests on campus, including stopping the use of so-called less lethal weapons and ensuring that coercive police power is used only as a last resort, among other recommendations. “Universities are responsible for protecting both physical safety and free expression on campus,” said Jamil Dakwar, director at the ACLU’s Human Rights Program. “It’s deeply concerning to see universities needlessly expose students to police violence for peacefully expressing their political opinions. We’re urging schools once again to exercise restraint, practice de-escalation, and protect free speech and dissent on campus.” Preliminary analysis by Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps has identified at least 174 photos, videos, or social media posts from 20 universities of potential excessive use of force by law enforcement under international law that merits further investigation. This includes 17 universities where chemical irritants such as pepper spray appear to have been used against student protesters, and 11 universities where officers appear to have responded to protests armed with kinetic impact projectiles such as rubber bullets. The results of this use of force by law enforcement agencies have been devastating, including media-verified reports of severe injuries such as bleeding puncture wounds, head injuries, broken teeth, and suspected broken bones, most notably at the University of California Los Angeles, Columbia University, and the City College of New York. The Digital Verification Corps also documented at least 10 other universities where photos or videos capture potential injuries to students. It found that half of the incidents involving injuries under investigation appear to be the result of chemical irritants. “The information we have gathered on excessive use of force against student protesters is extremely worrisome and we are still in the beginning of our investigation,” said Justin Mazzola, researcher with Amnesty International USA. “With the continuation of the Israeli military’s assault on Gaza and the risk of US complicity through the sending of weapons, campus protests in favor of stopping the violence and destruction will continue. Universities have a responsibility to protect academic freedom and the rights to freedom of expression, and to peacefully protest, and we will be watching to ensure they do.” The ACLU, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch are not alone in their concern. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and several UN experts, including the UN special rapporteur on the right to education, have criticized the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators by law enforcement and disciplinary measures against students exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. All higher education institutions, even private colleges and universities, where the First Amendment is not applicable, have a responsibility to respect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly under international law. “Instead of resorting to police action that both shuts down free speech and heightens the risk of injuries, universities need to do more to protect student speech from violence and intimidation, and actively ensure that peaceful student expression continues without interference,” said Tanya Greene, director of the US program at Human Rights Watch. As the letter explains, the ACLU, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch are conducting research and analysis of how campus administrators are responding to student protests. They urge universities to fulfill their human rights responsibilities by facilitating protests and ensuring that all students' rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, regardless of viewpoint, is respected. A comprehensive joint report on this issue is slated to be released by the ACLU and Amnesty International USA in the coming months. The open letter is available here: /documents/letter-to-universities-student-protesters -
News & CommentaryOct 2024
Immigrants' Rights
Human Rights
Three Ways the Media Introduces Bias to the Immigration DebateThree Ways the Media Introduces Bias to the Immigration Debate
Ahead of the election, we examined how political ads and news media stories depict the immigration debate as more negative than it may be.