Immigration Article of the Day: Immigration Enforcement Creep in Immigrant & Employee Rights by Angela D. Morrison

Immigration Enforcement Creep in Immigrant & Employee Rights  by Angela D. Morrison,  University of Richmond Law Review, Vol. 58, No. 4, 2024, pp. 731-92

Abstract

As the only agency charged with enforcing the Immigration Reform and Control Act’s anti discrimination provisions, the Immigrant and Employee Rights (“IER”) section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division plays an important role in protecting worker rights. Yet over the past decade, IER has moved from worker protection to immigration enforcement: a phenomenon this Article terms “immigration enforcement creep.”

This observation is based on ten years of data collected from IER’s settlement agreements, complaints filed, and telephone interventions. The data show that rather than protect noncitizen workers from unlawful discrimination, IER has moved its focus to enforcing immigration laws against employers who hire workers on temporary work visas. IER’s enforcement choices lead to under enforcement of the anti discrimination provisions Congress charged it with enforcing. This Article ultimately concludes that this immigration enforcement creep goes against IER’s role as a worker protection agency and suggests principles of equitable enforcement that should guide its exercise of authority instead.

KJ