Southern Arizona human rights groups are worried about what they call a pattern of worker abuse in the immigrant community, and federal officials say they are paying attention.
VIEW LARGER Joanna Williams, Program Director for the Kino Border Initiative. “We’re starting to see a pattern and we’re trying to learn more about it of individuals who are trying to assert their worker’s rights and then their employers call ICE officials on those individuals who then get detained and then deported,“ Williams said.
Mary Jo O’Neil is a federal attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She said her Phoenix office will go after Arizona employers who don’t pay workers.
Mary Jo O'Neil is a federal attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission“Often the employer then threatens them with deportation or threatens that they are going to call ICE," O'Neil said. "We view that as a second violation of the law – that’s retaliation.”
O’Neil said even if the worker is deported – her office will sue the employer and seek monetary damages for that worker.
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