Mayorkas issued a memo on Tuesday that could open a pathway for the first-ever workplace protections for undocumented people in the US
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ordered immigration officials to halt workplace raids for undocumented people, according to a memo sent Tuesday.
But while building up protections for undocumented people already in the country, the Biden administration continues to crack down on migrants encountered at the southern border using controversial public health rule Title 42.
'We can most effectively protect the American labor market, the conditions of the American worksite, and the dignity of the individual by focusing our worksite enforcement efforts on unscrupulous employers,' Mayorkas told immigration officials in the memo.
In the same message, he called for policy changes that would pave the way for the first workplace protections for undocumented people in US history by shielding those who report employers for workplace violations.
He called for officials to figure out a way to reduce the demand for undocumented workers by increasing penalties for business owners who employ them, as well as 'increase the willingness of workers to report violations of law by exploitative employers.'
Mayorkas threw out several options for steps in that direction, including deferring immigration enforcement or simply allowing the continued presence of undocumented people who witnessed or were subjected to harmful workplace standards.
'We will not tolerate unscrupulous employers who exploit unauthorized workers, conduct illegal activities, or impose unsafe working conditions. Employers engaged in illegal acts compel the focus of our enforcement resources,' Mayorkas said.
'By adopting policies that focus on the most unscrupulous employers, we will protect workers as well as legitimate American businesses.'
The memo gives DHS officials 60 days to make a blueprint for Mayorkas' proposed new policies.
Also on Tuesday, Mayorkas bizarrely claimed that Donald Trump's Title 42 expulsion rule is not an immigration policy the Biden White House 'would embrace' - despite the Democratic administration waging a legal battle to keep it in place.
In fact Biden officials used the policy to deport thousands of Haitian migrants who has recently made their way to the southern border in record numbers.
During the seven-minute Yahoo News interview Mayorkas acknowledged that his department has been under fire for its enforcement of the controversial order, particularly against Haitians.
'The Title 42 authority is a public health authority. And it is not an immigration policy. It is not an immigration policy that we in this administration would embrace,' Mayorkas said.
'But we view it as a public health imperative as the Centers for Disease Control has so ordered.'
It's a line that Biden officials have used to deflect criticism from immigration and civil rights groups that once supported his candidacy on his promise to roll back Trump's more restrictive immigration policies.
Some of those same groups are now suing to get the order repealed. In September the Biden administration faced a setback when a judge ordered officials to let Title 42 expire, but federal lawyers appealed the ruling.
Just one day before it was set to end, a US Appeals Court judge issued a stay on the previous order, allowing Title 42 to remain in place.
The CDC also reinforced the order at the end of their 60-day review on October 3.
The Trump administration had been criticized for using the pandemic as a shield to circumvent US and international refugee laws to deport thousands of migrants.
But on Tuesday Mayorkas continued to push the Republican's argument.
'We're in the midst of a pandemic. For anyone to think it's business as usual I think would be, frankly, ignoring a pandemic that has taken more than 700,000 American lives,' he said.
When the COVID-19 pandemic upended life across the globe, Trump administration officials pushed the CDC to invoke a seldom-used public health order that
