The Department of Homeland Security has been considering requests for deferred action by unauthorized workers for some time, but in January 2023, the department formalized the process to grant workers deferred action on a case-by-case basis in order to more fully investigate worksite violations and hold abusive employers accountable.
“The deferred action process that we put in place was because we know that if we don’t protect workers from retaliation or negative consequences through the weaponization of immigration status, we can’t get workers to come forward, and that just increases their exploitation and abuse,” Su said during the event.
Workers in Las Vegas played a huge role in the push to establish the DALE program, said Su, who vowed to visit the Arriba Las Vegas Workers Center after laborers rallied for renewals at the nation’s capital in December.
In recent years, labor advocates in Las Vegas have stepped up efforts to protect undocumented whistleblowers via deferred action after employees experienced retaliation from Unforgettable Coatings — a painting company based in Las Vegas — for speaking out against repeated wage theft.
Workers began reporting wage theft and retaliation from the painting company to the Department of Labor in 2019, before the case was brought to court by the secretary of labor in 2020.
Ex-employees eventually won a settlement of $3.68 million for stolen wages, penalties, damages and interest, as a result of the federal Department of Labor investigation.
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