President Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, Julie Su, reportedly directed California state employees to not comply with federal immigration law when she led the state’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement under former Gov. Jerry Brown.
The Center Square reports:
Ms. Su issued two memos to her then-employees instructing them not to comply with requests made by ICE and Border Patrol agents, one in May and one in July of 2017. In her July 7, 2017, memo obtained by The Center Square, she wrote, “A worker’s immigration status is irrelevant in determining whether an employer has violated state labor laws.”
Ms. Su also said in the memo, “There is no doubt the presence of federal immigration agents in our offices would have a substantial chilling effect on the willingness of workers to report labor law violations” and would cause “considerable harm” to workers.
Former Acting Director of ICE in the Trump Administration, Tom Homan, lambasted her nomination, saying it was another attempt by the Biden administration not to enforce federal immigration laws.
Homan explained:
Once again, this administration is taking steps to not enforce the laws enacted by Congress. A major pull factor for illegal immigration is jobs. DHS Secretary Mayorkas has already forbid ICE from worksite enforcement operations, and now he instructs DOL not to share information on companies that hire illegal aliens. This is disgusting and because of the fact the child trafficking and child labor is at an all-time high because of the open border, this will make it more difficult to find and save these children.
Even before her two memos, Julie Su expressed her opposition to federal immigration laws in a chapter she wrote in a 2000-era book about INS and the “criminalization of immigrant workers.” In it, she wrote, “By attacking (illegal foreign nationals) for their immigration status, the U.S. government ensures that they remain beyond legal protections and justifies their exploitation,” reports The Center Square.
In the book, Mrs. Su complained, “The INS war against immigrant workers creates a wholly exploited and exploitable workforce that serves the interests of corporate profit. While people have been defined as undocumented and therefore ‘illegal,’ capital has escaped such characterization.”
You can read the complete article, including the outlook of Mrs. Su’s confirmation, here.
